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Kerrod Keithington (48) likes to envision himself as a worldly man.
He’s pretty much up to date with foreign policy and corporate tax cuts, he also is well aware of how close his local member was to becoming Prime Minister – and he knows about the climate change policies that tore the Liberal Party apart to begin with.
He knows that this current drought is crippling farmers from Western Queensland to Central New South Wales, and he even knows the historical context associated with the term ‘Final Solution’ and why Senator Fraser Anning may have deeply offended some people in maiden speech earlier this month.
However, due to his socio-economic status, self-dependance and resourcefulness – he’s never come across the term ‘au pair’.
An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a upper class host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family’s responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a monetary allowance for personal use. Au pair arrangements are subject to government restrictions.
It is because this unique style of parenting is only prominent in bourgeois households, it is no surprise that Kerrod has never stumbled across an ‘Au Pair’ in Strathpine. It’s also no surprise that the father of four is confused as to way the ‘everyday bloke’ he voted for last election is looking like he might lose his seat because of one.
In November 2015, Peter Dutton intervened to free a 27-year-old French Au Pair from immigration detention, after his office was lobbied by AFL boss Gillon McLachlan.
The Minister used his powers to grant her a tourist visa. The ABC understands the au pair, Alexandra Deuwel, was planning to work with Adelaide-based pastoralist Callum MacLachlan, who is Gillon McLachlan’s second cousin.
While the seat of Dickson, historically been a marginal seat, changing hands between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party, a recent report has found the only resident that has ever used an ‘au pair’ is in fact their federal member Peter Dutton, in the days before he lost the unloseable Liberal leadership spill.
“I also have no idea why that bloke is doing favours for an AFL executive” says Mr Keithington.
“The Broncos still haven’t got that new training facility that Abbott promised”
