Controversial gay ex-MP demands pension

By Tony Grew • January 18, 2007 - 16:45

Olexander claimed his expulsion was as a result of homophobia within the party.

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The Australian former Liberal party MP Andrew Olexander is in the limelight once again.

He is applying for an exemption to allow him to access a pension paid for by the taxpayer.

Mr Olexander was a controversial figure in the Liberal party, roughly equivalent to the Conservatives in the UK.

The 41-year-old stood down from the Victoria Legislative Council at the state elections in November 2006.

He had sat as an independent in the upper chamber of the state of Victoria's legislature since his expulsion from the Liberal party in 2005.

Olexander claimed his expulsion was as a result of homophobia within the party, and used parliamentary privilege to name four former colleagues as anti-gay.

His career was dogged with controversy.

In 2004, Olexander crashed his car, paid for by the taxpayer, into four other vehicles, writing one off.

He was shown to have more than the legal amount of alcohol in his blood and resigned his shadow portfolios.

The media then began questioning his travel expenses, and he was forced to repay money that he claimed he had been entitled to.

In March 2006, the independent Mr Olexander attempted to bring forward a bill legalising same sex unions in Victoria, but was blocked from doing so by the Labour party state administration.

To claim his pension he needs to have served eight years, and he only served seven.

A committee of six MPs will now consider whether to grant the exemption.

He cited health problems as the reason he should be granted a pension.

Olexander could get as much as A$60,000 per annum.

The former MP had to pay back the A$100,000 of damage he had caused to cars in the 2004 crash, forcing him to take out a mortgage on his downtown Melbourne apartment.

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