SYDNEY (AFP) — Bad behaviour by Australian parliamentarians led to suggestions Thursday that they should be breath-tested for drunkenness before voting on legislation.
Several MPs supported the proposal after a state parliamentarian resigned his frontbench post for pushing a female colleague after attending a Christmas party, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The same MP, Andrew Fraser, was suspended from the New South Wales parliament in 2005 after chasing a minister around the chamber and grabbing him by the shirt before being restrained.
In September, state police minister Matt Brown was sacked after allegedly dancing in his underpants on a sofa at a drunken post-budget party in his parliamentary office.
"Honestly, if you are going to have breathalysers for people driving cranes you should have breathalysers for people writing laws," Greens MP John Kaye told the Telegraph.
Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell said he would happily submit to an alcohol test before entering parliament and the Speaker, Richard Torbay, said he would have no problem with the idea as long as tests were voluntary.
The strongest support, however, came from the Rail, Bus and Tram Union which said legislators should undergo the same testing as its members.
"All rail workers are subjected to random drug and alcohol tests, an infringement on their personal lives that they are told is necessary due to the safety-critical nature of their work," said secretary Nick Lewocki.
"But driving the state is every bit as safety-critical, and decisions our politicians make on issues as diverse as health, education and transport policy do affect public lives," he said.
A federal politician suggested that journalists covering parliament should also be sober, but that did not stop the Daily Telegraph from thundering in editorial: "If our politicians are drunk on the job, we've a right to know."
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