A new group of Senators were sworn into their places in the Australian Senate yesterday.


One of them, Senator Barnaby Joyce, has been making his position quite plain for some months since his election. His claim is that, as he was elected by the people of his state, Queensland, and the coalition party opposing his election (and thereby losing that 'final' seat for that state), and that his party is organised on state lines that then send delegates to a federal body that has not direct power over the state organisation, THEN... he says that his allegiances lie with his state organisation and not the federal party machine, much less the federal party machine of the ('senior') coalition party.

He has been pilloried by his political mates in the last 2 days of Parliament.

He has kept his nerve.

His claim is the his political stance is based on the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia calling for Senators to represent their state.

I agree with him. I've read it, too.

What I think is that the other Senators and Representatives are simply "playing politics", and know full well that this Senator has read the constitution like it was meant to be read by those who wrote it; and the others are ashamed to admit that he is correct.
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Peter