Queensland's Member For Thailand Resigns

[Sing_Sling]

if I am reading this correctly, the gutter press and some Thai Visa members have decided he's neglected his duties. I popped into a pub in his area when the press were there, and they were saying they was on his side and he was being hounded, then the same people write afslute crap about him in there papers.

So you include the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian as part of the gutter press?

saying they was on his side and he was being hounded, then the same people write afslute crap

You are clearly one who reads the highbrow papers.

They employ journos, don't they?

How is it that you have a bee in yr bonnet about Poole?

Has he done you a wrong?

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Nope, he hasn't, don't know the guy, would have no problem knowing him.

The problem I have is that he is being elevated to 'hero' status and as the battler for the little people for thumbing the government.

He is neither. He neglectd his duties as a representative of his constituency. We are all here, sitting and laughing and patting ourselves on the back, but how would you feel if you had been paying your taxes to pay his salary? If your concerns and grieveances were not being heard because your rep is off in Thailand, the excuse being a knee injury.

We always have a go at pollies who take us for a ride - why should this be viewed differently? because he came to Thailand???

Has he done you a wrong?

That's what ticks me off. Far from being the battlers representativem he has done his electorate wrong.

[Totster]

I popped into a pub in his area when the press were there, and they were saying they was on his side

Yeah.. right !

totster

[david96]

MP lashes out at mates

DAVID MURRAY in Bangkok

05mar06

RUNAWAY Gold Coast MP Robert Poole blames racism among his Labor Party colleagues for his spectacular exit from politics.

Mr Poole also has revealed Premier Peter Beattie privately assured him he was a great local member, despite publicly accusing him of betrayal for his frequent trips to Thailand.

Asked whether it was hypocritical for the Premier to approve his latest overseas trip and then abandon him because of public outrage, Mr Poole shrugged and said: "That's politics."

Mr Poole, 57, spoke exclusively to The Sunday Mail at a busy cafe near the Bangkok hotel where he has been in hiding with his wife, Pa, and sons Kimmy, 6, and Connor, 4.

He said there was an underlying tone of racism behind attacks on him for spending time in Thailand, where his wife and sons have been living.

"It's racism at its worst. One person on our side actually sneered at me for having a Thai wife," he said.

"That's the sad part. It hurts me more than what the Premier might have said or what some other people might have said."

Members of his own party were behind a vicious rumour campaign about his trips to Thailand that ultimately led to his resignation, he said.

Mr Poole quit politics this week after condemnation for taking three months off work to have a knee operation in Thailand and recover with his family at their home in Surin, in the country's northeast.

Despite the outcry, the former Member for Gaven said he had more than earned his $110,000 salary and said his electorate was still fully behind him.

"I have earned my pay – and probably more than anybody else," he said.

"Just ask anyone in my electorate, because I don't think there's one disappointed person in my electorate."

Mr Poole said he remained fiercely loyal to the Premier, who cut him loose when it was clear the controversy wasn't going away.

He had been given permission by the Premier for the long overseas break.

"It's a savage world, isn't it? But I know he doesn't feel that way about me," Mr Poole said.

"He would be very disappointed that I left because he's told me that I was a bloody good member.

"He's put everything aside, all the bull----, and he knows I was a good member."

Mr Poole said he decided to have the operation overseas – despite having to pay an extra $1600 – so that he could be nearby if his sick son, Connor, took a turn for the worse.

Mostly subdued during the interview, he was most bitter over unfounded rumours that he had been making up his son's illness.

"I was holding Connor getting a blood transfusion when a journalist rang me and said, 'You're using this as an excuse'," he said.

Producing a photograph on his phone of Connor in hospital, he said his son had a form of leukemia that had almost claimed his life twice.

Mr Poole said his soaring blood pressure, which requires him to have daily medical checks, had prevented him from having his knee operation.

He had first thought of quitting two weeks ago when a doctor tested his blood pressure and said: "You're a walking time bomb."

But he brushed off suggestions from fellow Labor MP and friend Don Livingstone, who warned publicly that Mr Poole could be heading down the same path as former NSW Opposition leader John Brogden, who tried to take his own life.

"I love my family too much. But it's nice to think somebody cares that much," he said.

"I think I'm a winner because I've got them."

[george]

Thai-loving Aussi blames racism for ouster

SYDNEY: -- A Thailand-loving Australian who last week bowed to pressure and resigned his seat in the Queensland state parliament Sunday blamed racism for his departure from politics.

Former policeman Gavin Poole's exit followed criticism from Labor Party colleagues for requesting three months off to have a knee operation in Bangkok.

Poole had spent six out of the last 24 months in Thailand where his Thai wife and his three children live in a luxury residence in the north-east Thailand town of Surin. The request for more time brought the issue to a head.

"It's racism at its worst," Poole told Brisbane's Sunday Mail from his Surin hideaway. "One person on our side (of politics) actually sneered at me for having a Thai wife."

Poole, a former English teacher in Hanoi, claimed he had been hounded out of Labor because of racism within the party.

Poole's embrace of the Thai lifestyle had given the opposition Liberal-National coalition a field day in state parliament.

"Poole has become an absolute joke in the electorate of Gaven," Lawrence Springborg, opposition leader, said earlier this month. "He really has to decide whether he wants to be the member for Gaven or the member for Thailand."

Springborg urged Poole to consider running in the upcoming Thai general election.

--DPA 2006-03-05

[English Noodles]

Well nowhere did it say he had to be in Queensland to serve his constituents! Faire play to the lad - he has his priority straight and I for one would love to buy him a few pints.

No worries you can reveal yourself to us here!!

And you have read his contract of employment?

[GuestHouse]

So, he resigns when he gest caught out, rather than resigning when he makes the decision not to do the job for which he was elected - having put himself up for election.

Australia is better off without him.

[udon]

Former policeman Gavin Poole

Ahh, Aussie journalism at it's best...