PM thanks dumped Belinda Neal

With the end to Belinda Neal's troubled political career in sight, Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd has given her a short and concise rap, thanking her for her "hard work".
But if there was any relief at losing Ms Neal - who has enjoyed more than her share
of scandals in almost a decade in federal politics - he wasn't showing it.
Ms Neal is due to leave parliament after losing a preselection battle in her NSW
central coast seat of Robertson to university lecturer Deborah O'Neill on Saturday.
The unpopular Ms Neal lost the party vote emphatically, 98 to 67.
Asked on Sunday how glad he was to see her go, Mr Rudd told reporters: "The
preselectors have had their say. Belinda, of course, has worked hard as a local
member, but Debbie O'Neill is going to be a great candidate for us."
Ms Neal's impending departure will undoubtedly put a new slant on Labor's attempt to
hold the seat, Australia's most marginal. A tiny 0.1 per cent swing would see the
party lose it.
That it will be a tight contest from here on was all Mr Rudd would say.
The federal opposition said it did not matter who was at the helm.
"It seems as though they've replaced a Neal with an O'Neill, but it's still the same
Labor," frontbencher Joe Hockey told ABC television.
Deputy prime minister Julia Gillard said Ms Neal had been a "good member for her
area" but the rank and file members had spoken.
Whether Ms O'Neill's selection would sway voters in Labor's favour was up to "the
voters in Robertson to decide".
Ms Neal suffered both a public and private backlash after a string of scandals, most
famously her 2008 tirade at a Gosford bar.
No charges were laid as a result of the "Iguanagate" affair but Mr Rudd ordered her
to undertake anger management counselling.
Labor frontbencher Nicola Roxon said there was a lesson for all politicians in Ms
Neal's political dumping.
"We are answerable to the public, we're answerable to our party, we're answerable to
local preselectors," she told Network Ten.
"That's the rules that we live and die by and obviously that's what's happened to
Belinda."
Outspoken Australian Workers' Union secretary Paul Howes was one of a few to openly
welcome Ms Neal's fall, tweeting "best front page I've seen in a long time" in
response to the Sun-Herald's headline "Bye Bye Belinda".