Friday, June 5, 2009

This possum tormented NSW politicians

By Gemma Jones

(Daily Telegraph) -A POSSUM which has terrorised an MP's office and dined on apples belonging to parliamentary staff has proven there is such a thing as a free lunch in politics.
Since being evicted from Parliament House in Macquarie St - more than once - the Hansard Possum has been treated to a banana a day.

A home has been built for him in a fig tree at the rear of the building where Little Bobby, parliament's famous blind possum, lives and takes food from kind security guards.

The battle to evict the Hansard Possum from the roof of Level 8, including once this week on Wednesday night, has lasted two years and cost at least $2585.

By law, he can only be moved 50m from Parliament and cannot be relocated to the bush.

Little Bobby -

On one occasion he was found in an MP's bin after pooing all over the floor and another time he took a bite out of a worker's apple in the Hansard department, his favourite section of Parliament and where he regularly urinates.

He has a big scar across his nose from a fight with another possum and was once even spotted running up a drain pipe, a rare skill for a brushtail possum.

"He needs to go to the toilet a lot at night and it leaves a smell," assistant building services manager Brett Wright said yesterday.

"We are not going to evict him and leave him, we are trying to look after him. He has a possum house, we keep it topped up with fruit. He loves bananas."

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