Whodunnit ?

The political assassination is over.  The task is accomplished and the deed has been done. Emma Husar will politically cease to exist when the next Federal election is called sometime in 2019. The conspirators who achieved their aim can safely wash the blood from their hands.

This seems to be a typical case of a person who has achieved the distinction of winning a seat in parliament gaining a highly expanded ego.  Tacking "Honourable " to ones name is a huge elevation on the social scene and that person is entitled to staff to assist in running their office.  It is just too easy to become dictatorial and lose sight of the fact that they serve at the publics pleasure.

All the political parties have a mix of political alignments.  They are called the "factions "and they veer sharply left and right.  In many minds this factional viewpoint is more sharply defined that the general credentials of the party they represent.  They will gladly vote down legislation that does not meet the criteria of their personal view, even if it embarrasses their party leader.

It seems that Emma Husar had a high turnover of personal staff and it became known that she had the disposition to micro-manage her office.  The distinction between her "personal "and "political " life was merged and staff found themselves tasked with doing her shopping and exercising her dog, with a demand that cleaning up its droppings laws be strictly obeyed.  She was accused of subjecting staff to unreasonable demands, practices and disciplinary methods.

To enemies with an opposing factional viewpoint this presented opportunity. Staffers who had either resigned or were dismissed were encouraged to complain to the party and this led to an enquiry being ordered.  Barrister John Whelan headed that enquiry and when he began taking confidential evidence the whole matter was leaked to BuzzFeed.

It immediately sparked media excitement.  To drive that to a crescendo, a new story emerged that branded Ms Husar a sexual deviant.  With remarkable affinity to a movie scene from years earlier she was accused of deliberately crossing and uncrossing her legs in the office of a fellow parliamentarian while not wearing underwear.  It sent the voyeurs into a frenzy and the TV vans camped outside her front door.

Emma Husar capitulated.  She will not contest her seat at the next election.  John Whelan has cleared her of that sexual matter, but found that staff complaints did have merit.  Her political party is anxious to close the doors on this embarrassment, but the fact that a confidential enquiry was leaked to the media demands that the culprits be named - and shamed.

That will not happen.  The political "leak "is as old as the system of parliament itself.  These faction fights go on inside all political parties and it is up to individual parliamentarians to ensure that they leave no opportunity for their opponents - internal or external - to base an attack that will do damage.

What is new in this case is the use of sex as an avenue of attack on a female parliamentarian.   That breaks new ground and illustrates the depths to which factional fighting will descend to ruin careers and displace opponents.  It seems that factional war - it now total war !