He's out of the Cabinet, and now he's out of the Senate. Senator Eamon Courtenay today told 7NEWS that he yesterday resigned from the Senate. As minister of foreign trade, Courtenay had been one of only two senator ministers the other being Assad Shoman.
Last week Thursday, the Prime Minister met with Courtenay and told him that he was being removed from the Cabinet but offered him the post of director general of foreign trade. The prime minister gave him the weekend to think about it and on Tuesday morning Courtenay told the PM he was refusing it. Then, ministers Smith, Coye and Briceno convinced the prime minister to take him back into the Cabinet and Courtenay then refused that offer. But, according to our sources, he didn't refuse so that he could stand with Ministers Espat and Hyde, he did it because he felt if the prime minister had to be convinced into asking him back, then he'd prefer to stay out.
Now with this resignation, Courtenay has possibly pre-empted the inevitable, because it was felt that the prime minister would have removed him from the Senate away, particularly because votes in that section of the house can be so close. Now, we wait and see who the Prime Minister will appoint to fill that vacant Senate seat.
