Seriously? Yes, seriously.
In 1986, Michael Coutts-Trotter was caught drug dealing by Australian Federal Police surveillance. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison for importing and distributing heroin. He, by his own admission was a Junkie. After serving only 3 years, he was released.
So how on earth did this man get the job of NSW Justice Minister last month?
How was he Director General of NSW education and training in 2007? He had no qualifications in Education, and I, for one, find it astonishing. Even the Teachers Federation expressed grave concerns about the appointment. After all, a qualified teacher with his background would be unable to find employment working with children.
How the hell did this former junkie with a conviction for heroin importation and trafficking get to such an illustrious position?
By 2011 he had moved onwards and upwards and scored the job as Director General of Finance and Services in the NSW Government. By 2013 he led the Department of Family and Community Services.
In April 2019 he was appointed as head of the (NSW) Department of Justice.
So how did this happen? Well, coincidentally, In 1991 he met Tanya Plibersek, the now Deputy Leader of the Opposition Labor Party in Australia. The love struck pair soon married.
By 1998 Ms Plibersek was elected to Australian Federal Parliament as a Member for the division of Sydney. She became a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 2004 and, when Labor won the 2007 Federal election she was made Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women. By 2011 she had been promoted to Minister for Health, a position she held until Labor was defeated in the election of 2013, The same year she had been appointed as Labor Leader’s Bill Shorten’s deputy leader.
Clearly, Tanya Plibersec’s position in the Labor Party has absolutely nothing to do with Mr Coutts Trotter’s meteoric rise to magnificence. Absolutely no way Jose.
As Ms Plibersec herself remarked ‘people can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes.'
Well, isn’t that super?
Fast forward to May 2019. With the Federal election in Australia about 16 sleeps away, polls indicate that Labor is on track to become our next Government.
How gratifying to know that the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia is married to an ex junkie drug trafficker who was, well, just a very naughty boy.
Forget the countless lives lost from heroin use and overdoses delivered courtesy of this naughty boy. Forget the parents, siblings and children of these now deceased persons who were furnished with the lethal poison called heroin that this reformed pillar of society made available to their loved ones. Yeah, forget all of that.
It is probably just as well that Labor are so left leaning that they will not be visiting America any time soon. Imagine the embarrassment when the spouse of the Deputy Prime Minister is refused a visa to enter USA because of a serious drug conviction.
I doubt that America would be quite so generous as to say that ‘people can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes' and here is your visa.
For myself, I am hoping like hell that Labor does not win the election so the prospect of having an ex Junkie as the spouse to our Deputy Prime Minister will not be a reality.
And Australia will be spared the horror that faces us as a Nation, should Labor win Governance. The prospect of becoming the second Venezuela is one that is too terrifying to contemplate.
But that, as they say, is another story.
