Troy Buswell

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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.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Deputy leadership
3 Leader of the Opposition
4 References
5 References

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 had 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.^[2] However, Buswell won the contest by 209 votes.^[3]

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 had advised Birney he would vote for him before the meeting.^{[citation needed]}

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 could not improve polling by the end of the year.^[4]^[5]^[6] However, Buswell was being investigated by the Corruption and Crime Commission over allegations that he had 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.^[7] Former party leader Colin Barnett, however, dismissed its significance, claiming Buswell would lead the Liberal Party at some future point but did not yet have the experience.^[8]

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.^[9] Omodei, however, promised to "land a good right hook" on anyone asking him to stand aside,^[10] and asked for a "fair go" while announcing a swathe of new policies for the Party going forward.^[11]^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[14]

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".^[15]

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,^[15] but subsequently admitted to the act. ^[16] The woman later revealed Buswell "was groaning and writhing in sexual pleasure".^[17]

As well as these incidents, Buswell has been accused by retiring Liberal MLA for Carine, Katie Hodson-Thomas, of making sexist remarks to her.^[18]

MLA for Roe Graham Jacobs called for a leadership spill motion, which took place on 5 May 2008,^[19] but the motion failed and Buswell remained leader.^[20]

After accusions of Buswell playing "quokka soccer", which have been denied, revelations came out of Buswell "squirrel gripping" (grabbing the testicles of) Liberal MLA Murray Cowper in parliament. Cowper did not 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."^[21]