I have written about former local state upper house MP Bernie Finn on various occasions in the past, particularly when I suggested he get given a knighthood (I was being facetious, if you don’t quite know how to read my tone!).
I will be honest and concede that his first coming as an MP in 1992 was of some value. He won the lower house seat of Tullamarine in the state election where the Kirner government got deservedly flushed down the toilet. That was a habitually Labor held seat, and he was not expected to retain it in 1996, but somehow he did. My impression was, that as a relatively youthful MP, he did a good job in holding a place on the Coalition backbench.
By 2006, when proportional representation had been introduced for the state upper house (a mistake I say – the upper house vote should be restricted to homeowners and other ratepayers rather than allowed to the plebs), Our Bernie got a second chance. He topped the Liberal ticket for Western Metropolitan, which guaranteed him election.
As the Liberals decided not to permit sitting state MPs to be challenged for their preselections for many years, he was able to retain his seat for four consecutive terms.
During that time, he increasingly showed a maverick and rather feral nature, leading some to ponder whether it would have been better to open up preselections for challenge earlier.
In the end, he was expelled from the party room over some tone deaf social media comments on abortion – an issue which, whilst supposedly near to his heart, he had never bothered actually taking a stand on in parliament.
As I have written before – his expulsion was way overdue. He really should have been expelled when he secretly reneged on a pairing arrangement and voted in a division when he had begged for an exemption as he did not want to be present in the parliament at Easter. That the opposition leader and the parliamentary party tolerated his underhand behaviour at that time did not do them any credit.
After his expulsion, Our Bernie returned to his first political love, the DLP, and brought a disgruntled Labor MP Adem Somyurek (famed for branch stacking) with him, in time for the 2022 state election. Our Bernie was not successful in his bid for reelection under the auspices of the DLP, but his boon companion was.
At the time, I described the DLP decision to run Our Bernie and Mr Somyurek Esq as a Hail Mary Pass.
My thoughts at the time were the following:
Hospital or Hail Mary Pass? The DLP Gamble Their Principles on the Prospect of Electoral Success
In that post, I observed my views on the DLP’s gamble thus:
This does not strike me as without significant risk. Neither has the integrity or idealism which normally represent a DLP candidate , but represent a blatant lack of principles and a proven disregard for ethical behaviour in their public life (Finn in his Good Friday ‘pairing’ stunt and Somyurek in his branch stacking).
If either was to be elected, who is to say that they would not then desert the DLP for another opportunity later down the track? Or even worse, were to remain as DLP MPs whilst repeating their history of reprehensible behaviour.
I more or less warned that:
The more likely outcome is that the DLP do not win any seats, but appear discredited and cynical through the cold and calculated decision to gamble their principles and ideals on two tired old renegades. This could end up costing them support amongst their existing members.
Interestingly, neither of these gentlemen remain in the DLP today – and whilst the DLP actually did help one of these chaps get elected, Mr Somyurek is now listed on the Victorian Parliament website as an independent and Our Bernie has jumped ship, again, for the resurrected Family First party as their lead Senate candidate for the next election.
So I think that the decision by the DLP in 2022 to back the Finn-Somyurek ticket has only served to discredit the DLP, and they don’t even have a current seat in any parliament to show for it – something that they will need, if they don’t have 1000 paid up members, to contest the increasingly imminent federal election.
Perhaps Our Bernie realised that, prompting his decision to join Family First.
What has inspired me to write about Our Bernie today is that after much inactivity on Facebook, he has recently appeared in my Facebook feed, in full throated voice, unmitigated and unfiltered. I’m not quite sure when he started posting on Facebook, as I have only been able to doom scroll back about two weeks, but it is clear that he is posting many times per day, every day. I can only assume that he is sitting around with a glass of decent shiraz in one hand and his smartphone in the other, thinking of what next to say.
His utterances (I will not dignify them with the description ‘writings’) are mostly aimed at his dislike of most of his former colleagues in the Victorian Parliamentary Liberal Party (except for his replacement, Moira), his joy at Trump’s reelection, and his Moiraesque views on abortion and gender issues. Interspersed between those are some ad hominem jabs aimed at Dictator Dan and Albo.
In other words, they are quite self-serving and immature – particularly for someone whom I believe to be into their sixties by now.
We have this to look forward to between now and the federal election, and I dearly hope that Our Bernie does not block me on social media, as I find him quite entertaining.
Lost For Words! 