The Victorian Parliament was once considered the genteel, morally superior cousin to the “bearpit†of the New South Wales legislature.
And yet two firebrands of the West have had a red hot go at each other in recent days. One hails from Melton and the other from Sunbury, traditionally vicious rivals in matters of amateur football. Our distant memory is that the Sunbury Rovers would often feel the need to take blades with them when entering the badlands of Melton South. But that’s a story for another time.
Our favourite Tory legislator, red-meat eating Tigers supporter Bernie Finn opened the baseball-batting against Labor MP Don Nardella, complaining that he was sending complaining constituents to his parliamentary office. The Hansard records:
Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) — President, I take the responsibilities of being a member of Parliament very seriously. In particular our ability to represent the interests of our constituents and to bring to the attention of this Parliament and the executive issues that affect people in our regions or electorates is crucialto the proper workings of the democratic process. I have always felt this way; for me it is a political article of faith. For that reason I was particularly disappointed last week when a resident of Melton entered my electorate office with his tale of woe. Keep in mind that Melton is not actually in Western Metropolitan Region. The individual involved is not one of my constituents. The gentleman to whom I refer is a father of five. He has had a housing issue for some five years. He went to his local MP in the Assembly seeking the member’s assistance but was told, ‘I can’t help you. We’re not in government any more. Go and see Bernie Finn’. The door was slammed in his face.
The Melton resident took his local member’s advice and caught the train to Sunshine, where my office is now assisting him.
To reject somebody’s plea for help on the basis that ‘We’re no longer in government’ is a total abrogation of an MP’s responsibility to those he should represent. It stinks of Labor members’ ongoing neglect of their electorates and is intolerable on any measure. Sadly it is what we have come to expect from Labor MPs from one end of Melbourne’s west to the other. The bottom line is this: Labor just does not care about those it should care about. Labor governments come, and Labor governments go, but we know contempt for the people of Melbourne’s west on the part of the ALP goes on forever.
Donato, also a VEXNEWS favourite, responded in great style within minutes in the lower house, making a suggestion of the most exotic kind about our Bernie:
It is a budget that neglects the west, as the honourable member for Williamstown has said. I will use my last 20 seconds too say that I have had a member for Western Metropolitan Region in the other place say that he is upset that I am referring people to his office. He is upset because that means he would have to do some work and actually take some time away from him going into the porno shops in Exhibition Street. So I say, thank you very much for your time.
VEXNEWS (Archive) 
Nardella has well and truly out served his time on the parliamentary back benches. He has his pension and it is time he was moved on. The ALP needs to enlist new talent and remnove the dead wood that is holding back growth and renewal.
Finn is from Bulla not Sunbury!
Never forgiving you for losing Macedon Bernie. Serge is still after you.
You go Bernie Finn – don’t take no crap.
Top stuff Don – keep on keeping on!
To the best of my knowledge, the only establishment in Exhbition Street that Bernie Finn frequents is the one located at number 104. To the best of my knowledge it is not a porno shop although some may feel it is.
This all reminds me of the repartee between Robert Menzies and Jim Cairns.
PM: The Honourable Member for Lalor has shown by his question that he has the brains of a goat.
Member for Lalor: Mr Speaker, I demand a retraction.
PM: I retract my observation. I am now of the view that the Honourable Member for Lalor does NOT have the brains of a goat.
Of course, now the Honourable Member for Lalor is the PM!
I call on the leader of the government in the Legislative Assembly to demand that the honourable member for Melton retract his imputation that the Honourable Member in the other place for Western Metropolitan Province is a person who frequents retail establishments that purvey material of a sexually explicit nature restricted for sale to persons over the age of 18.
This story has more holes in it than Bernie Finn’s underwear. Don Nardella has been a great representative of Melton, and unlike many of his ALP colleagues, he actually had a real job before he was elected.
It has been a long time since the disgraced Ice-Cream Joe graced 104 Exhibition Street. Joe seems to be unaware of Julian Sheezel’s legacy, the porn shop otherwise known as the Tollarno Gallery.
Don’t worry Bernie. If your staffers are getting overworked because of so many constituents you can always get a few more from overseas like before. Nothing like skipping the local employment market to bring true love together!
http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/star/sunshne-ardeer-albion/97/story/45446.html
Don is the pride of the west. There is no better local member, and his booming voice in parliament is one that the Libs hate. Go Don.
When Finn was the Member for Tullamarine I was a resident of Westmelton. I approached his office when Kennett was Premier. He refused to help and slammed the door in my face telling me to see Don Nardella. Finn is a hypocrite and an epic fail.
Michael – what was the problem you went to see Finn about? Did you see Narella later and what happened?
Dear Michael formerly of West Melton,
Did Bernie Finn really slam a door in your face or was that just a bit of hyperbole? I suspect he told you that your local member was Don Nardella and it was appropriate that you tried to have your local member deal with the issue if he could. I am sure that if you did so and the opposition was unable to help you, you could have approached him again and he would have helped you. Bernie Finn was an excellent marginal seat member and tried his very best for his constituents who had to come first. There’s only so many issues that a backbencher can deal with in a day and you cannot begrudge someone looking after their own first.
I know Bernie Finn and he can’t help being helpful!
However, I am curious why you went to see Bernie first rather than your local MP. Don Nardella also appears to be a good bloke despite his politics.
Dear Michael formerly of West Melton,
Did Bernie Finn really slam a door in your face or was that just a bit of hyperbole? I suspect he told you that your local member was Don Nardella and it was appropriate that you tried to have your local member deal with the issue if he could. I am sure that if you did so and the opposition was unable to help you and you had a genuine grievance about something the Victorian government was responsible for, you could have approached him again and he would have helped you.
Bernie Finn was an excellent marginal seat member and tried his very best for his constituents who had to come first. There’s only so many issues that a backbencher can deal with in a day and you cannot begrudge someone looking after their own first.
I know Bernie Finn and he can’t help being helpful!
However, I am curious why you went to see Bernie first rather than your local MP. Don Nardella also appears to be a good bloke despite his lefty politics and he should have helped you. As a reader of Vexnews, you are not some neophyte who is ignorant of electoral boundaries so you might care to explain your actions lest we all think you left your safe ALP seat to waste the time of a Liberal Party backbencher in a very marginal seat so he couldn’t service his constituents.
As well as being helpful, Bernie is a very astute judge of character. No doubt, Bernie was awake to your ruse and sent you scurrying back to your ALP masters.
Dunny Nardella is George Seitz’s lovechild and is about as effective.Whilst Bernie might have trouble with returning calls, he at least takes the time to listen to people’s problems, unlike Dunny. In fact if you arent a paid up member of Dunny’s branch, you can kiss your complaints goodbye.And musnt it be hard to say you are only an opposition backburner…Gravy train has lost it’s wheels.
Loved the Melton leader headline on this. ‘MP accused of spending too much time in porno shop’.
The paper seems to be suggesting that there is an acceptable amount of time an MP can spend in Porno shops.
MP accused of spending too much time in ‘porno shops’
GOVERNMENT
8 JUN 11 @ 02:03PM BY ANDREW JEFFERSON
MELTON state Labor MP Don Nardella has – in Parliament – accused Western Metropolitan MP Bernie Finn of spending too much time in “porno shops’‘.
The row erupted after Mr Finn accused Mr Nardella of sending his constituents to Mr Finn’s parliamentary office in Sunshine.
Mr Finn said a Melton father of five had a long standing housing issue but was told by Mr Nardella’s office: “I can’t help you. We’re not in government anymore. Go and see Bernie Finn.’‘
Mr Finn told Parliament: “The door was slammed in his face.’’
Mr Nardella quickly responded in the lower house.
“He (Finn) is upset because that means he would have to do some work and actually take some time away from him going into the porno shops in Exhibition St,’’ he told Parliament.
Mr Finn said he found Mr Nardella’s response “juvenile’‘.
“I’m not in the habit of frequenting sex shops or porno shops, but even if I was a male escort, it doesn’t hide the fact he’s (Nardella) not doing his job,’’ he said.
“To say that is just a cop out, it’s pathetic really.’‘
Mr Finn said to reject somebody’s plea for help on the basis that “we’re no longer in government’’ was a total abrogation of an MPs responsibility to those he should represent.
“It stinks of Labor members’ ongoing neglect of their electorates and is intolerable on any measure,’’ he said.
“Sadly it is what we have come to expect from Labor MPs from one end of Melbourne’s west to the other,’’ he told Parliament.
When asked to explain his comments about Mr Finn outside Parliament, Mr Nardella declined to elaborate.
However, he said it was false for Mr Finn to suggest that he had shunned his constituent’s plea for help.
He said he had advocated on the resident’s behalf without success and had suggested contacting Mr Finn as a last resort.
“We have done as much as we can for this man and I’m disappointed that Mr Finn has used this case as a political football to try and give me a good kicking,’’ he said.
“He came out last year asking Melton constituents to come to him with their problems.
“Well, here is one we asked him to fix and he failed.’’
Can the die hard libs on this site refresh my memory was the last failed Liberal candidate for Melton state pushing for a 24 hour bottle shop in Melton?
And has the failed liberal candidate for Macedon just resigned from Police force after being the subject of a probe?
Ted sure knows how to pick them.
The people of Sunbury say the best thing was when Don the Dunny man went to melton.
I have just read a nice Libertarian piece about Weinergate. There was one excellent paragraph in it that I would like to share:
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good old-fashioned political sex scandal. They’re entertaining, and they may even be edifying — reminding us that self-styled “public servants” are often less responsible, more venal, and just plain dumber than those they seek to rule.”
See the whole article at:
http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/07/the-lessons-of-weinergate