Major speech for Gorst as pressure builds

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Chief Minister Ian Gorst is due to face business leaders just as cracks start to show in his attempt to sack his Planning Minister.

With pressure mounting ahead of next week’s showdown vote to unseat Environment Minister Rob Duhamel, Senator Gorst is due to face the Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

The Senator will speak at Chamber's January lunch about the work that the Council of Ministers is doing to ensure an economic recovery and to reform the way that States departments work. But whatever he has planned for his speech, he is much more likely to be questioned by the Chamber audience on his move to dismiss the Environment Minister and on his declaration that he would have decided over Christmas whether or not he will be standing in the November elections.

Speculation has been growing that Senator Gorst may face more of an uphill battle than first thought.

The States are back in action next week after their winter break, with propositions on political reform yet again dominating their debate schedule.

Senator Gorst’s dismissal proposal says that Deputy Duhamel has misled the Council of Ministers, the States and the public, and that he has failed to abide by his own department’s code of conduct. Politicians are likely to be divided on the vote, but Senator Gorst’s own position will be called into question if he loses it. That turns the debate into a straight question of either sacking Deputy Duhamel or bringing down the Chief Minister and with him the entire Council of Ministers – and Members are unlikely to want to do that.