Used to be Ray Hunter, a backbencher who reportedly had his fair share of differences with the direction some things went.
Now it’s Wade Verge.
Wade’s seat is as far from the Speaker’s chair as one can get on the government side of the legislature and it is right next to a door everyone uses to go in and out. It is not exactly prime real estate.
It may also be a clue as to who is in favour and who better mind their “P”s and “C”s.
That’s not the only peculiarity in the House of Assembly seating chart. Usually when the government side has too many to sit on the government side, they tend to stick the lowest seniority fellows over with the Opposition.
Not in the current session.
There’s the last Boy Scout, Steve Kent, marked by the red “1”, accompanied by a whole bunch of other fellows of about the same or more recent vintage. And truth be told that’s where Wade and Harry should be.
But they aren’t.
Instead there are a trio of parliamentary assistants - designated by the red “3” - who ought to be over closer to their ministers so they could confer on important matters without having to walk all the way around behind the Speaker. They are pseudo-ministers after all and as such should be over with their fellow assistants. They should be in the seats on the very back of the government side and the crowd up by the Speaker (marked by a red “2”) should be back one tier.
Now that other crowd of red “2”s on the right there are also a bit out of place. The middle tier of that last block down on the right there seem to be a bunch of ministers who don’t hold a high prominence in the cabinet. proximity to the Premier and the Speaker are huge clues to prominence in the usual way of seating people.
Oddly enough, that would include Ross Wiseman who, while he gets a front bench space due to seniority perhaps, is still only a couple of steps from being out through the centre doors (denoted by the bit of a bracket on the extreme right). His distance from the Premier and the Speaker seems a wee bit odd.
Now all of this might mean nothing at all.
But then again, this whole Kremlinology thing started with Trevor Taylor.
-srbp-
