It gets better for the Liberal party.

EMBATTLED West Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell, who has admitted sniffing a female colleague’s chair and snapping another’s bra strap, has been accused of squeezing an MP’s testicles.

Was it Amanda Vanstone’s testicles?

Mr Buswell allegedly grabbed the backbencher in the crotch on the same night he snapped a Labor staffer’s bra during a drunken night at Parliament House last October.

Backbencher? So not Amanda. Perhaps this is why Backflip Brendan is opposing the alcopops tax – so he can join in the crazy shenanigans?

Nationals leader Brendon Grylls said the government should not wait until early next year to call the election.

“We must not allow the Parliament to fall into disrepute,” Mr Grylls said.

No, I agree. In-between chair sniffing, quokka molesting allegations, bra-snapping, scrotum squeezing and shirt lifting (not forgetting Brian Burke!), you must never let the WA parliament fall into disrepute.

The West Australian has responded to the Buswell chair affair with a little get-even dirt-digging. The West Oz’s journos had to delve back to 2004 to find anything of note: a boozy ALP function where Labor premier Alan Carpenter allegedly lifted the top of MP Jaye Radisich and exposed her bra.

‘Commenting‘ on the story, Andrew Bolt just can’t help himself and engages in the kind of base sexism and personal denigration we’ve come to expect from certain low-brow bloggers. He inserts the above pic as ‘ftgg.bmp‘ (as all sub-editors would know filenames for pictures are rarely random; draw your own conclusions what it might mean) and captions it with:

I suspect that [WA Labor MP Jaye] Radisich would certainly have noticed had [WA premier Alan] Carpenter attempted the job of lifting her top.

The Boltmeister then goes on to suggest that Carpenter’s alleged bra-lifting is actually worse than Buswell’s chair-sniffing because it is more “direct”, whereas Buswell was just “alarmingly inventive”. How cute. And all this moralising is predicated on an event that Carpenter denies, Radisich has never mentioned let alone complained about, and staff at the aforementioned function apparently did not witness. Not that either Bolta or the West Oz are likely to let the facts get in the way of a good smear job.

The Editor, John Surname, Ant Rogenous, Jeremy Sear, The Happy Revolutionary and Craig discuss:

* Sin tax
* Whingeing musicians
* Chair sniffing
* Wilson Tuckey vs. Bill Heffernan in the GrodsThink naked cagefight

** Because of the pernicious lack of Brendan Nelson bashing in this episode use only the “Play in popup” link or the “Download” link. **

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From the Wild West comes this:

West Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell has broken down at a press conference and admitted he sniffed the chair of a female Liberal Party staffer.

Speaking to journalists at a press conference at Mandurah, south of Perth, Mr Buswell confirmed details of the woman’s account of a 2005 incident, reported in The West Australian newspaper today.

Oh dear. The only question that remains is: WHY?

The woman, who does not want to be named, said Mr Buswell started sniffing the chair she had been sitting on at his Parliament House office in December 2005.

The incident took place in front of other staff members.

She said he had done it to get a laugh.

That’s why he did it? To get a laugh?

Piss weak.

Mr Buswell has previously admitted to snapping a Labor staffer’s bra as a drunken party trick and has been accused by retiring Liberal MP Katie Hodson-Thomas of making sexist remarks to her.

Was that for a giggle as well?

He said it had been a difficult time for him “on a personal level”.

“These are difficult issues for me to deal with and they are very difficult issues for my family to deal with,” he said.

“It’s hard dealing with these matters and having to face up to your responsibilities behaviourally, publicly, and it’s harder to do it privately.”

Of course it’s been difficult for the family. No one else found it funny; why should the family?

Deputy Liberal leader Kim Hames was today standing by Mr Buswell, describing him as a “rough diamond with a robust sense of humour”.

“Robust”? How about just “iffy”?

And “rough diamond”? How about “undeveloped mineral deposit”?

Dr Hames said his leader needed to change his behaviour, but also acknowledged there was no one to replace him.

Right. Just like the Libs can’t replace Doctor Brendan Nelson. Hey, did you know he’s a doctor?