Not one, but TWO Australian premiers are likely to cop a no-confidence vote as Parliament resumes today and honestly, let’s just throw the whole government out.
If you’re wondering what the actual fuck is happening in Australian politics this week, you’re not alone. I’m just gonna come right out and say it: shit’s fucked.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews and New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian are both facing no-confidence votes on the same day, and interestingly, they’re for completely separate reasons. I mean it when I say, Australian politicians are messy bitches.
Andrews is expected to face a no-confidence motion in Parliament on Tuesday after his right-hand man Chris Eccles resigned on Monday, marking the second high-ranking member of his team to yeet out of office in recent weeks.
Eccles’ resignation comes after phone calls revealed he spoke to Victoria’s head of police as part of the state’s hotel quarantine set up, despite having no recollection of the call.
The move comes just weeks after Jenny Mikakos resigned last month, sparking the Liberals and Nationals to move a no-confidence vote over his handling of the pandemic as a whole.
Meanwhile, Gladys Berejiklian has found herself in a similar position after yesterday’s bombshell development that she had a secret relationship with disgraced Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.
The scandal prompted Opposition Leader Jodi McKay to flag the possibility of a no-confidence vote against the Premier.
“I think it’s extraordinary that Ms Berejiklian thinks she can still be Premier of this state when she has turned a blind eye to corruption,” McKay said, according to the ABC.
“I think Gladys Berejiklian should not even walk into Question Time today as Premier.”
Interestingly, the opposition can only move a vote of no-confidence each parliamentary term. This means if the motion fails, the opposition won’t be able to try again until the next state election (2022 for Victoria and 2023 for NSW).
At this point, Australian politics is an absolute mess and, uhh, have we tried turning it off and back on again? Putting it in rice? Factory reset? At this point I’m willing to try anything.
