Friday 14 February 2014

That vote and the Hansard record


Twitter had it first as it happened on 12 February 2014:




Then the mainstream media picked it up in articles such as this in The Sydney Morning Herald the next day:

It's a brave thing for a politician to abandon his party and vote with the other side. But last night it was confusion, not bravery, that led the new Liberal member for Barton, Nickolas Varvaris, to unwittingly "cross the floor" and vote with Labor.
The Sydney MP walked into the chamber, took his usual seat and drifted off into his own world.
''He had just walked into the chamber so he couldn't have been asleep, even though I am told he had his eyes closed,'' Mr Perrett said.
While Mr Varvaris' state of wakefulness is a matter of dispute – and he has not yet returned Fairfax Media's calls to clarify – one thing is certain: he was sitting on the wrong side of the House when it switched over for the vote.
And as the Labor opposition MPs began filling the seats around him all declined to alert the Liberal MP to his mistake.
The doors closed and Mr Varvaris was counted as a Labor vote.
Liberal MP Craig Laundy, who like Mr Varvaris is a new member of Parliament, said he ''felt sorry'' for his colleague.
''We're new to it,'' Mr Laundy said. ''There but for the grace of God go I.''

Mr. Varvaris was recorded as being in the Chamber and voting at 5.10pm. He was also recorded as present for the 5.18pm vote.

However, don’t look for Nickolas Varvaris’ embarrassing vote during the 6.16pm division in question – it had been removed from the 12 February 2014 Hansard record by the next day.

UPDATE

Video found at realities of the world:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Saw the video footage. NV came in for the division, sat down and very visibly kept nodding off. He was not even roused by all the laughter.
Think he might've had a very generous dinner break.