I found this in my FB newsfeed this morning and thought it might raise a chuckle or two, regardless of which side of poitics you support. the authors name is given as Craig Williams..
For my southern friends that follow politics, last night the NT Speaker got sacked then reappointed. That doesn't seem to make much sense so I'll give some background to clear up what happened.
The CLP were elected with 16 members, they only need 13 for a majority. A few months in the Chief Minister Number 1 was dumped while representing the NT in Japan and Chief Minister 2 was appointed. Not long after that 3 CLP members decided to leave the party and become independents, we will call them Members 1, 2 and 3, soon after that Members 1, 2, and 3 joined Palmer United Party, but then decided they didn't like that either so the became independents again, Member 3 at that point decided he wanted to be CLP again so he rejoined.
So at this point Member 1 had gone from Labor to CLP to Independent to Palmer and back to Independent.
Member 2 had gone from CLP to Independent to Palmer and back to Independent.
Member 3 had gone from CLP to Independent to Palmer to Independent and back to CLP.
After another short period Chief Minister 2 was dumped at midnight and Chief Minister 3 declared himself victorious. However the next day Chief Minister 2 threatened to take his bat a ball and go home so Chief Minster 3 said "Can I be Deputy Chief Minister at least?"
Chief Minister 2 agreed, so Chief Minister 2 became Chief Minister 4, and Chief Minster 3 became Deputy Chief Minister.
All was peaceful after that.. until Member 4 decided to quit the CLP, followed soon after by Member 5, who was also Speaker 1.
Now the CLP were down to 12 members, they no longer had a majority. Speaker 1 promised the CLP they could stay in power but she wouldn't guarantee any legislation. This annoyed Chief Minister 2/4. Chief Minister 2/4 approached Member 2 and convinced her that the CLP were doing well, so even though Member 2 was still an Independent she agreed to support the CLP.
The CLP now had the needed 13 votes to get rid of Speaker 1 and replace her with a CLP person that we will call Almost Speaker 2. So the vote occurred and Speaker 1 was dumped, then half an hour later a secret ballot occurred to vote between Speaker 1, and Almost Speaker 2. In that half an hour a person that we will call Member Anonymous changed their mind and voted against their own party. So Speaker 1 was elected again and became Speaker 2, while Almost Speaker 2 was left very confused.
