Belinda Neal saga symptom of demise of ALP right wing
By Clinton Porteous
June 20, 2008 12:00am
EVEN when she was trying to deny she kept photographs of her enemies in the freezer Labor MP Belinda Neal could not give a straight answer.
When the story broke, Neal angrily phoned the producers of the Today breakfast television show and told them it was not true. But when asked where the story came from: slam, down went the phone.
Neal does not like to be challenged on anything. It is her way or no way, and it is a growing phenomenon as we enter the age of the "professional politician".
Our elected representatives constantly are pampered by staff and they enjoy chauffeured limousines, free air travel and generous travel allowances.
For B-graders like Neal, who are never going to be ministers, it can be a very cushy ride and a long way from the day-to-day reality that faces most Australian households.
But Neal and her powerbroker husband, John Della Bosca, represent the best of the worst the right wing of the New South Wales Labor Party, which now has been exposed to scrutiny.
The Right is an old macho network from Sydney that believes in headkicking but largely ran out of talent more than a decade ago.
When Paul Keating was doing his thing at the dispatch box, and his right-hand man Graham Richardson was doing "whatever it takes" to get things done, there was a certain brutal aura to the Labor tough guys from Sydney.
But that era is well and truly gone and Australian voters are left with a hollow shell of a faction the worst state Labor government in the country headed by Morris Iemma, and a federal politician like Belinda Neal who was a time bomb waiting to explode in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's face.
The public perception is that Neal goes around constantly offending people and demanding to get her own way.
And it is only because she is a politician, and a member of the NSW Right, that she gets away with this alleged behaviour.
At the heart of the infamous incident on June 6 at the Iguana Club, on the NSW Central Coast, which is now under police investigation, are claims of an abuse of power and position.
The avalanche of allegations that followed only served to perpetuate this perception.
There were claims of brutal behaviour on the soccer field, her alleged bizarre use of the freezer and her crude verbal attack on heavily pregnant Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella. While initially denying the attack, Neal later apologised for claiming that Mirabella's unborn child would "turn into a demon, you have such evil thoughts".
The most bizarre part of this last incident is that she was caught red-handed denying it, even though her words had been captured on tape.
For Neal, truth appears to be a relative concept and it is very hard to sort the fact from fiction when it comes to her life.
What is absolutely clear from "Iguanagate", and her verbal attack on Mirabella, is that she tries to cover things up; it is another pattern of behaviour of the NSW Right.
The strategy already has cost Neal's husband, Della Bosca, his job as he has been forced to stand aside as the Education Minister in the NSW State Government for penning his own apology from the Iguana Club management.
While the downturn of the NSW economy is starting to affect the rest of the nation, the many failings of Iemma and the NSW Right sap confidence from the state.
The Prime Minister thus far has played it safe with the powerful faction, but this does not mean he won't get burned in future.
Rudd's rise to the Labor leadership in late 2006 relied on the NSW Right, but he has since managed to keep them relatively under control. He also took a tough line with Neal.
Ordering her to anger management classes was smart politics, leaving no one to disagree with his assessment that she had displayed an "unacceptable pattern of behaviour".
But it is still a balancing act for Rudd as the Right is a key part of his federal powerbase.
Only three of his Cabinet are from this faction Agriculture Minister Tony Burke, Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
They are important, but not crucial, portfolios.
Much bigger jobs have been handed to Sydney left-wingers such as John Faulkner as Cabinet Secretary and Anthony Albanese as Transport and Infrastructure Minister.
Iguanagate has blown the lid on Neal and the dirty underbelly of the NSW Right.
porteousc@qnp.newsltd.com.au
