Alexander Downer, Schapelle Corby, and a Home Invasion...

It would probably be fair to say that Alexander Downer as Foreign Affairs Minister in the John Howard Liberal Government that he would have expected to take some heat over any role he could have played in securing the release of Schapelle Corby from Kerobokan Prison in Bali. This might be particularly so considering that Ms. Corby is still in Kerobokan prison and suffering from severe mental illness, including two attempts at suicide.

However, as a former Foreign Minister who has been out of government for some time and who is focused much more on conflicts in other parts of the world, he probably was not expecting a stranger to walk into his home and start abusing him on his failure to get Ms. Corby released from prison and then imploring him to do something to get her out now.

Yet, this was the case last Thursday. Downer was sitting down watching the news at 6.15pm when an elderly woman walked through an unlocked front door, sat down on his couch and then proceeded to give him an earful. There is little doubt that incidents like these get people to thinking about their home security. Without a doubt there is going to be some ramped up security at the Downer household from now on, starting with locking the doors.

It would seem that Mr. Downer was not in fear of his life, and asked the woman who she was, which triggered a tirade that culminated in the old lady suggesting that if Mr. Downer did not get Corby out of jail then God would damn him. Cutting to the chase, Downer called the police, the woman disappeared through his garden, the police arrived, the woman was gone. The police believed that they knew who the woman was and apparently an arrest has subsequently been made.

There is plenty to be said for the passion and commitment of Schapelle Corby's supporters, but it is incidents like these that make one wonder to what extremes some people are prepared to go in pursuit of their cause. A home invasion of the former foreign minister's home is certainly ratcheting it up to the next level.

It is a worrying development, aside from the action being a home invasion, I really fail to see how this sort of thing helps Schapelle and her supporters get her out of jail.

Alexander Downer Quits

I guess it is no fun being in opposition after a reign as Australia's longest serving Foreign Minister. Alexander Downer has pulled the plug on a rather long and somewhat distinguished political career.

There are, as in any long career, a couple of moments that could have run better that might have seen him as Prime Minister rather than Foreign Minister. Unfortunately, the comment that undid him and saw him dumped as Liberal Leader was a stupid attempt at humour through a play on words.

The former Foreign Minister is moving into a part-time United Nations role as Special Envoy for Cyprus. The major role here is thought to be an effort to revive the peace process between the Greeks and the Turks over Cyprus.

This means that there will be a need for a by-election in his seat of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills. This has always been a pretty safe Liberal seat and it is currently held by 7.1%. This is after a swing of 6.5% against Downer at the last election. However, with the recent results in the Gippsland by-election showing a swing away from Labor, it is expected that this will become a much safer Liberal seat at the by-election.

Labor is even considering the option of not running a candidate which suggests that they are a little bit concerned about being humiliated as the electorate has had a little time to re-evaluate their decision to elect a Labor government.

Anyway, good luck to the fella!