OZschwitz: Parasite Downer switches to new gravy train, the UN

THE former foreign minister Alexander Downer has ended months of speculation about his political future by confirming he will quit politics to take up a position with the United Nations, paving the way for another byelection.

At the weekend Labor was refusing to guarantee it would contest Mr Downer's safe seat of Mayo after the Government was stung by a strong swing against it in Gippsland on Saturday.

Mr Downer will work as a UN special envoy in an effort to revive the peace process between the Greeks and Turks in Cyprus.

"I will be working toward helping the Cyprus saga, working as an envoy to try and resolve that long standing issue," Mr Downer, 56, told News Limited in London yesterday.

He is expected to formally announce his retirement from federal politics this week.

It is believed his role with the UN will be on a part-time basis, allowing him to also concentrate on working for the corporate advisory firm Bespoke Approach.

Mr Downer served as the country's longest running foreign minister, from March 1996 to December 2007 in the Howard government, and the shortest-serving Liberal leader, eight months from May 1994.

He held the seat of Mayo, in the Adelaide Hills, by 7.1 per cent at the last election despite a 6.5 per cent swing against him, and Labor feels it will swing back towards the Liberals in a byelection.

LNK
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Fucking lowlife!
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"Taking money without permission is stealing unless you work for the IRS then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania unless you work for the Army then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy unless you work for the FBI then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp & poisoning people makes you a murderer unless you work for the CIA then it's counter intelligence." R. Wilson. ANCAPS Forum Headquarters, Ancapolis