Environment

OINKER: Greens party pig Colleen Hartland MLC slags colleagues over freebies then greedily agitates for taxpayer funded lunch

Greens political party MP Colleen Hartland got her first good press today in ages paying out on her state parliamentary colleagues for receiving a freebie horse racing pass that in our observation too few of them use. Yet she’s been caught out on the same day lobbying for the scheduling of a parliamentary committee over the lunch-hour so that taxpayers would be left to pick up her considerable tab for her midday feast.

The media lapped up Hartland’s story, all too keen for rorts stories about politicians, without realising that her large snout looms very prominently in the parliamentary trough. Health experts tell VEXNEWS that Hartland is almost certainly “morbidly obese” with one estimating her to over 130 kilograms or “probably over 20 stone in the old measurement.” They were unable to comment on whether free parliamentary lunches of a lavish kind were likely to be contributing to the health situation.

While preaching piously about how she returned her racing pass, the real Colleen Hartland was painfully apparent to several parliamentary colleagues. One concerned correspondent told VEXNEWS:

Thought you might be interested that on the same day Colleen Hartland is bagging MPs for receiving perks such as VRC passes, even within the same hour she was saying that on talkback radio, she sent an email to the Outer Suburban Interface Services and Development Committee suggesting they have a taxpayer-funded lunch meeting.

They were even kind enough to supply a copy of the email sent by the hungry (possibly pre-breakfast) MP to her astonished colleagues:

From: Colleen Hartland
Sent: 09/08/2009 07:53 AM
To: Matthew Guy; Sean Coley; George Seitz;
Cc: Don Nardella; Danielle Green; Ken Smith; David Hodgett; Nazih Elasmar

Hello, I would like to suggest that we discuss the new references either today or a lunch time meeting next week.

Colleen Hartland MLC
Western Metropolitan Region
E: colleen.hartland@parliament.vic.gov.au

P: 9689 6373
W: http://mps.vic.greens.org.au/

Hartland went very pious about the racing passes even suggesting that it was a kind of corruption for the MPs to accept the pass while they were voting on legislation governing the racing industry. The racing clubs that supply the passes are – in fact – not for profit organisations that labour under extensive regulation of all kinds.

Presumably this same logic would make federal Greens party leader Senator Bob Brown beholden to all the donors who have given him millions of dollars personally in recent years, ostensibly to mean the cost of nuisance lawsuits he regularly loses against the forestry industry.

And yet Hartland’s pious attitude to living large clearly doesn’t extend to other taxpayer funded largesse. perhaps particularly when it includes free meals.

© 2009 VEXNEWS 2010©.