.JPG)
The winds of change were evident when Little Darwin visited parliament for the first time under the new CLP regime. A female armed with a leaf blower was removing detritus- old ciggies, bottle tops, drinking straws, invading South Australian millipedes, space junk from out the front and side of the gleaming white building , the flags hanging limply, waiting for a burst of windy weather. Inside waves were breaking out all over the chamber–the pollies were waving madly at schoolchildren in the public gallery, normally vacated by other members of the public when the kinders pour in. An Assembly staff member was seen waving his tie at somebody in the gallery early in the proceedings . An attendant informed me to make sure my mobile was turned off and that no photographs could be taken.
That’s a shame because I would have liked to have taken a pic of the flower displays in the centre of the room to have them checked by Arnhem Nursery as I am sure they were not all Australian natives , if any. Due to failing eyesight, some looked suspiciously like South African proteas.
Sitting like a lonely little petunia in an onion patch at the back of the Opposition side was former Chief Minister Paul Henderson . Throughout question time he poured himself many glasses of water from his jug, fiddled with his biro, tugged at his ear , ran a finger underneath his snozzle , patted his receding hair, occasionally wrote on the one piece of paper in front of him. Having gone from the status of a rooster ruling the roost ( admittedly with the help of Chicken Man ) to a feather duster , Henderson was deridingly called yesterday’s man , no longer listened to by anyone from his backbench position. There were more non points of order raised by Opposition than spots in the current measles outbreak in the NT. As usual , Kon Vatskalis asked a question which was hard to understand over the PA.
Proceedings were interrupted so that the House could walk across to Government House for tea and sympathy. Unfortunately, the killer plovers were not in residence on the lawn outside the Wedding Cake , so nobody was dive bombed like February 19, l942. Readers will recall that aggressive plovers took a dislike to former Labor Minister Rob Knight , re-routed at the last election, or he would use the annoying American pronunciation, re-rowted . Little Darwin had a quick chat with Alison Anderson as she headed towards Government House ; Alison proudly claimed that now that she is a minister in the CLP government , she is the only person since Winston Churchill who has held a ministry on both sides of parliament . I suppose this entitles here to give the two finger V for victory sign that made Winston famous. It is sincerely hoped that she does not take up smoking cigars as did Winnie the War Winner .
Even though Henderson was on the backbench in parliament, he was up front with the now party leader, Delia Lawrie , and Kon Vaskalis , as they marched down the driveway at Government House , the surroundings as pretty as a picture postcard, a veritable Garden of Eden .
