JAKE THE SNAKE DEAD: Tragic end to Victoria’s seediest and sleaziest sex shakedown saga

A sad end to a sorry saga. The bad lad who cost a Victorian MP his political career by attempting to shake him down for $15,000 with a gay sex tape is dead, aged 29 years old.

Victorian Parliament House overrun by vermin #springst

The magnificent old Victorian Parliament House on Spring Street is undergoing renovations which have dislodged a mischief of mice and/or a pack of rats which the Legislative Council president Bruce Atkinson has said requires urgent action.…

Public transport lobby opposes making service cheaper for outer suburban residents #springst

You’d think a lefty public transport group would support moves to make it less expensive for outer suburban travellers to use the service. Think again.

Daniel Bowen, a much-quoted spokesdude for the Public Transport Users Association in Melbourne, even managed …

GREENSPARTY’S WATERGATE: Hip and cool WikiLeaks party set to swoop on ethically challenged Greensparty

Criminal charges for a senior Greensparty honcho, Fraser Brindley, over the illegal penetration of a rival political party’s computers, will make it very difficult indeed for the party to pretend it’s the moral superior of other parties. With looming threats like the WikiLeaks party set to pick at their carcass after three years of being closely connected with an unpopular federal Labor government, things aren’t looking good for once idealistic enviro-party in the post Bob Brown era.

FARRAH FORCED IT: Journalist burned confidential ministerial source, leaving Andrew McIntosh a smouldering ruin

Feisty Fairfax factotum Farrah Tomazin clumsily divulged the identity of a confidential source, causing a senior Victorian Liberal minister to resign. Should she also resign? Many in Spring Street think her goose is cooked.

TURN IT DOWN: Grouchy Greensparty Senator attacks live-music because she can hear it in her office

The Greensparty pretend to be on thing but are actually something else entirely. They pretend to campaign in favour of live-music to connect with its mostly young fans. But what they do and say in private betrays them as selfish, intolerant and hypocritical.

UGLY: Fin Review plays race card on Obeid

If Eddie Obeid broke the law, he should be punished. But the guilt-by-association frenzy that swirls around the former NSW MP is getting very, very ugly, substantially fed by NSW ICAC headline addicts.

In today’s supposedly respectable Financial Review, their …

CHEAP SEATS: VEXNEWS know-alls tell Dr Denis how to cure what ails government

The new Victorian Premier Denis Napthine made some important changes but missed a few important ones.

WHY TED FLED: The faction master fell on his sword to put the knife into his foes

As the dust settles on the most bizarre week in Victorian politics since Kennett lost the 1999 election most expected him to win easily, a clearer picture emerges of why the Premier of Victoria left. His successor said he left because there was deteriorating support, but there’s more to it than that. The former party president who never let go of being a factional warrior chose the timing he did, in large part, to shaft his factional rivals who were supporting Matthew Guy.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY: First it was Buswell & Carles, now WA Greensparty shows Liberals How-To-Vote lerv

Despite pretending to be a party of principle, the Greensparty in WA have been caught out in what their supporters and Labor critics see as a sleazy preference swap with their supposed conservative adversaries. How many Greensparty voters will actually follow a How-To-Vote card that preferences Liberal will be interesting to watch but in any event, it is all enough to remind us of one of VEXNEWS biggest yarns when we exposed the indecent liaison between then Greensparty MP Adele Carles and heavy-hitting Liberal, then WA Treasurer Troy Buswell. Good times…