Heat on Gorst as States return

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Peace may have broken out on the Council of Ministers, but Chief Minister Ian Gorst still faces a tough time in the States today.

He faces an urgent question tabled by one of his assistant ministers about how things turned around so quickly that he was able to make a deal with an Environment Minister who had – in Senator Gorst’s own words – failed to be honest, straightforward and open with fellow ministers and the States.

Assistant Economic Development Minister James Baker has tabled the question for this morning’s States sitting, which is the first after the long Christmas break. After last year’s abortive debates on States reform, politicians start 2014 with another set of proposals on changing the way that States Members are elected.

But Deputy Baker is not the only one with questions about the last-minute peace deal – it is understood that not all ministers had been told that Senator Gorst and Environment Minister Rob Duhamel had buried the hatchet before yesterday’s announcement that the dismissal vote was being called off.

In the original dismissal proposition lodged a fortnight ago, and backed by a majority of ministers, Senator Gorst had written: "We can no longer work with a Minister who has failed to be honest, straightforward and open with fellow Ministers or with this Assembly."

Over the weekend, the two struck a deal to keep working together after Deputy Duhamel apologised for the breaches that led Senator Gorst to seek his removal from office, and Senator Gorst “expressed regret” about the way that their dispute had escalated. There had been speculation in the last few days that the Chief Minister did not have enough votes lined up to unseat the Environment Minister, and that the debate was going to be messy and divisive.