Everything about Troy Buswell totally explained
Troy Raymond Buswell (born
19 March 1966) is a politician from
Western Australia and is currently the
Liberal member for the
Legislative Assembly seat of
Vasse and, since
17 January 2008, is also the state
Leader of the Opposition.
Biography
Buswell was born in the regional city of
Bunbury,
Western Australia. He was educated at
Busselton Senior High School and later attained a Bachelor of Economics at
University of Western Australia, where in 1986 he won the W.G. Salter Memorial Prize in Economics.
In 1992, he became the director of Villa Carlotta Group, which provided bus tours in the
Busselton region, and also became involved with the Cape Naturaliste Tourism Association. On
14 November 1992, he married Margaret Cummins, with whom he'd two sons.
He served as a councillor with the
Shire of Busselton in 1995–1996, and again in 2001–2003, before becoming its Shire President at the 2003 local government elections. He stepped down to contest the
state election for the
Liberal Party in the seat of
Vasse, which is centred on Busselton. Some controversy arose over his preselection as he was chosen over the sitting member,
Bernie Masters, who blamed then-deputy leader
Dan Sullivan for the decision, quit the party and ran for the seat as an independent. However, Buswell won the contest by 209 votes.
Deputy leadership
With the unexpected resignation of Deputy Opposition Leader
Paul Omodei in October 2005, Buswell was elected by the party room to replace Omodei in the role, serving under
Matt Birney. In March 2006, when Omodei challenged Birney for the leadership, Buswell's vote was believed to have been crucial in Omodei's victory—it was claimed in press reports that he'd advised Birney he'd vote for him before the meeting.
By August 2007, polling numbers had fallen below 14%, and media commentators speculated that Omodei would be toppled and replaced with Buswell within six months if he couldn't improve polling by the end of the year. However, Buswell was being investigated by the
Corruption and Crime Commission over allegations that he'd met former Liberal powerbroker
Noel Crichton-Browne, who was working as a lobbyist in conjunction with former premier
Brian Burke, in a carpark to discuss the Canal Rocks development at Smiths Beach in
Yallingup while he was still mayor of Busselton. On
9 October 2007, he was cleared by the CCC of any wrongdoing and pressure upon Omodei immediately increased. Former party leader
Colin Barnett, however, dismissed its significance, claiming Buswell would lead the Liberal Party at some future point but didn't yet have the experience.
On
28 November 2007, just after the
2007 federal election which saw a new
Labor government under
Kevin Rudd come into power, rumours of a push within the Liberal Party to install Buswell as state leader were reported in the media. Omodei, however, promised to "land a good right hook" on anyone asking him to stand aside, and asked for a "fair go" while announcing a swathe of new policies for the Party going forward. On
23 December 2007, it was reported that Buswell was moving his family to
Shenton Park in
Perth's inner western suburbs due to lengthy periods of time away from his family.
Leader of the Opposition
On
17 January 2008, Buswell made a challenge for the leadership of the state Liberal party and after a party room meeting won the position from
Paul Omodei.
In the following media conference, he refused to comment on allegations relating to a drunken night at parliament, where he snapped the back of a female Labor party staffer's bra-strap as a "party trick", and other "inappropriate and sexist behaviour".
On
27 April 2008 further allegations were published, these included the sniffing of a chair of a female Liberal staffer as well as claims he crawled around on his hands and knees pretending to be the staffer's husband. Buswell first refused to deny the allegations, The woman later revealed Buswell "was groaning and writhing in sexual pleasure".
As well as these incidents, Buswell has been accused by retiring Liberal MLA for
Carine,
Katie Hodson-Thomas, of making sexist remarks to her.
MLA for
Roe Graham Jacobs called for a leadership spill motion, which took place on 5 May 2008, but the motion failed and Buswell remained leader.
After false accusions of Buswell playing "
quokka soccer", revelations came out of Buswell "squirrel gripping" (grabbing the testicles of) Liberal MLA
Murray Cowper in parliament, who didn't deny the incident, saying "As far as I'm concerned the matter's dead and it's time for everyone to move on, the media included."
Further Information
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