The Age has a good wrap up of the strange and conveniently timed demise of the NSW Labor power broker John Della Bosca.
Two things raise questions here.
1) Resignation for adultery seems to be a little quaint in this day and age.
When the wounded party is Belinda Neal adultery begins to seem entirely understandable.
No laws were broken. There was a little bit of the high handed behaviour for which Mr Della Bosca has become known, but nothing that constitutes a big deal.
If resigning over adultery becomes the norm there are going to be a lot more holes in cabinets across the land.
2) Wonderful timing for Nathan Rees isn’t it?
Well one doesn’t come from nowhere to be Premier without knowing where at least a few bodies are buried. The NSW Premier Nathan Rees was going to have to try and sack Della Bosca in the next few weeks, possibly getting rolled in caucus in the attempt, effectively ending his leadership.
Beyond that though, Della Bosca’s quick reaction to the story breaking was slightly suspicious. It normally takes a few days between the publication of the revelations and the resignation. Sometimes it can be weeks.
Had he seen the axe coming and decided to find a way out that will make him seem more human? (And virile)
If this has been pushed out there for the benefit of Nathan Rees then there has to be a suspicion he’s got the dirt on more and worse things in Mr Della Bosca’s past. With the relatively harmless adultery revelations in the media the threat of further revelations might have prompted a very fast resignation indeed. As a hypothesis it ties up a lot of loose ends.
On the other hand if the story actually came from the Della Bosca camp that too would tie up a lot of things. Having crunched his numbers and come up short the big man might have decided now is the time to retire to the back bench and stitch up a transition to the lower house if he wants to realistically be Premier some day.
Labor may be a red hot certainty to lose the next election, but the chances of the NSW Liberals being a one term only affair are also high.
On the other hand this could just be the revenge of a young woman scorned. But if Della Bosca really hadn’t seen this coming and really wanted to hang onto his position one really would have expected a greater delay before resigning.