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• Pesutto John 3.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:37, 24 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It's not mentioned in our article yet, but I'm sure it will be in due course. I'm intrigued by the focus that's been given in the media to this "casting vote", when it was nothing of the kind. As Pesutto himself pointed out, the motion to restore Deeming to the party room required a minimum of 16 votes to succeed. Before Pesutto voted there were 14 for and 14 against. Then Pesutto voted against, making 14 for and 15 against. That did not affect the outcome one way or another, since the motion was already lost, there being fewer than 16 votes for Deeming, and she would have needed two more votes, but there was only Pesutto's one vote available, and it went the wrong way anyway. There was no casting vote.

Where do these myths get created, and why?

A similar myth that still gets trotted out 53 years after the event is that John Gorton used his casting vote to vote himself out of the prime ministership in 1971. Again, rubbish. There was a first vote, which Gorton won narrowly. Then he said that, despite winning, he felt the winning margin was too narrow and did not demonstrate sufficient support for his leadership, so he called for a second vote, at which he would not be a candidate. McMahon won that vote. Not only was there never any casting vote from Gorton, but party rules at the time did not even allow for a casting vote. Any vote that was deadlocked was automatically lost. The truth is that there were two votes. He won the first, and was not even a candidate for the second. There was no casting vote.

Truth in politics? Hah! -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:45, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I guess it makes for a juicier story GMH Melbourne (talk) 23:15, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]