The ministerial career of Western Australia’s treasurer Troy Buswell has come to an abrupt end as the former Leader of the Opposition resigned his post after suffering an apparent breakdown.
Image credit: flickr user: StuRap
According to the article on The Australian, Mr Buswell was involved in a car crash in his ministerial car after attending a wedding reception two weeks ago.
Premier Colin Barnett, a patron and defender of Mr Buswell through a long list of public scandals, yesterday revealed the now former Treasurer had been hospitalised over a breakdown and is suffering from serious health problems.
According to the article on AFP, Mr Buswell has been on leave for the past two weeks. Mr Barnett said Buswell called on Sunday to inform him of his intention to resign his post.
“It was clear that Troy is still not in a good place — very emotional, very upset, very apologetic but he had taken the decision to resign immediately as minister,” Barnett said.
“I accepted, obviously, that decision.”
Mr Barnett will now temporarily assume Buswell’s responsibilities as treasurer and transport minister, as he did in 2010 after Mr Buswell stood down over an affair with then Greens MP Adele Carles, which was thought at the time to have involved improper use of parliamentary entitlements. The accusation of misusing entitlements was later proven to be false.
Back in 2008, he quit as state leader of the conservative Liberal Party after admitting he had sniffed a chair a female colleague had just vacated.
This was the last of the long list of controversies surrounding the mane of Mr Buswell.
“With respect to what happened in the early hours of that Sunday morning, he said he basically didn’t have much recollection, not denying anything at all, making no excuses and could offer no reasonable explanation for what had happened,” Mr Barnett said.
“He is a brilliant person. Unfortunately, he’s also got a serious health issue,” Barnett said, without elaborating on the nature of the illness.
Buswell’s resignation comes as Western Australia’s economy is at a crossroads, as Australia’s mining boom fades.
