While I’ve been over in New Zealand, talking with comms advisers and colleagues mostly about Online Reputation Management, Australian politics has unearthed another cracker of a PR disaster. Liberal MP Troy Buswell has admitted he sniffed a seat that a female staff member had very recently been sitting on…classy eh?
Buswell has some other sexist ‘form’ (read below) which suggests that this scenario reveals the man’s true character; and it’s the unsavoury nature of his character that’s undoing his reputation. Even admitting the incident to the media, Buswell’s tears seemed as much to do with getting caught as they were about remorse for the offence caused to the woman whose, erm…seat he sniffed.
Recalling the scenario (which happened 3 years back) the unnamed woman said that, in front of other staffers, Buswell started sniffing the chair she had been sitting on at his Parliament House office in December 2005. Mr Buswell has previously admitted to snapping a Labor staffer’s bra as a drunken party trick and has been accused by retiring Liberal MP Katie Hodson-Thomas of making sexist remarks to her.
Here are a few telling quotes about the issue from Buswell’s Liberal colleagues (as reported to ABC TV) – what do they tell us about their views of Buswell’s actions and character??
“Troy has had the bra strapping incident and you know he’s had a, you know, the same as anyone else, had a background of fun, fun times and I mean we’ve all had that, we’ve all had times we’ve regretted.” Barry Court, WA Lib Party President
“He’s a rough diamond with a robust sense of humour“: Kim Hanes
“Troy is a very sensitive, a very dignified person in all of his dealings with me and I think that these issues are issues that are well and truly passed.” Helen Morton