GAME OF GAFFES: This Week’s Biggest Stuff-Ups And Bloopers In Australian Politics

Tell us you love Punkee without telling us you love Punkee. Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. It'll mean the world.

In every war there are fights that must be fought, attack ads that must be aired, babies that must be kissed. The combination of these trials results in either a valiant win or a denigrating loss as only one team can rule the Parliament. With the battle for Australia’s iron thrown looking awfully similar to the war of 5 kings, we take a look at who is winning and who is stumbling their way into obscurity. 

This week on game of gaffes…..

Richard Di Natale – Oh Man, My Au Pairs Are Costing Me A Fortune
Screen Shot 2016-05-27 at 5.31.04 PM

The king of the forest, Dr Richard Di Natale was the latest MP to be embroiled in scandal when it was revealed that he didn’t declare his family farm in the Victorian Otways for 15 months – breaching parliamentary rules and potentially placing him in “serious contempt” of the Senate. The revelation comes after Labor MP David Feeney last week forgot that he owned a multi-million dollar house in Northcote. Senator Di Natale was quick to attack Mr Feeney on his bewildering misplacement, making this revelation even more scandalous. The Greens senator was quick to defend himself, claiming that although he hadn’t declared his farm as a property, he did declare it as a business asset. We shouldn’t be too hard on Di Natale or Feeney, filling out forms is hard – even for politicians.

Just when Di Natale thought he was in the clear, it emerged he had paid three Au Pairs to help with his family farm as little as $150 a week after tax. He maintains that he had paid his Au Pairs a wage well within the law; the weekly wage did not include provided room and board worth $300 a week. Nonetheless, it wasn’t a good look given The Greens have made workers’ pay and conditions a central feature of the 2016 election campaign. I guess that Steve Jobs and Richard Di Natale have more in common than their love of turtle necks – they both managed to find a justification for underpaying their workers.

 

David Feeney – Has Anyone Seen My Top Secret Campaign Documents?Screen Shot 2016-05-27 at 5.41.56 PM

Oh man, he is at it again. David Feeney can’t seem to catch a break. Last week he forgot about his $2.3 million investment property and this week he misplaced Labors election cheat sheet. In an interview on Sky News, Feeney attempted to defend himself over the revelation of his undeclared property. He claimed he hadn’t forgotten about his house, he just wasn’t accustomed to doing his own finances as that was usually taken care of by his wife. To make matters worse, he accidentally left a copy of Labor’s election blueprint in the green-room. The blue-print outlined a number of election policies that were yet to be announced by Labor. In Fennel’s defence, his wife is also normally the one responsible for the where about of Labors election blueprint.

Mathias Cormann – I Can’t Hold It In Anymore – I ❤️ Bill Shorten Screen Shot 2016-05-27 at 5.35.40 PM

The Coalitions election spokesperson, Senator Mathias Cormann this week declared his love for election rival Bill Shorten. In a dramatic fumble, the Finance Minister seemed to confuse who he was talking about and stated “”Bill Shorten is very caring and very much in touch and Bill Shorten every single day is promoting our national economic plan for jobs and growth”.

Well it was safe to say Bill Shorten was incredibly flattered by Senator Cormanns endorsement and is just glad his message is getting through, albeit he didn’t expect he would be winning the hearts of his immediate foes.

 

We are only in week three of an eight week election campaign and there seems to be more gaffes than declared investment properties by members of Parliament. I am sure Malcolm and Bill are hoping they had some dragon’s right about now. 

Until next time on Game of Gaffes.  

 

Words by Nathan Robertson