With his better half's approval, he could now run the notion past the rest of the family.
By the time the Ballantynes and their youngest daughter, Tammy, headed to the Chinese Restaurant for the regular Saturday night dinner, that round of phone calls had delivered the desired result.
He'd started with his father, an accountant in Townsville with connections to the University community and the legal fraternity.
At the end of that call, he had the name of the lawyer who'd represented the Labor candidate for Herbert in the Court of Disputed Returns after the last Federal election.
"Does he know all about this stuff?" Des had asked.
"He should," his father had shot back. "His brother used to be the Member for Herbert."
That was good enough for Desmond.
He'd be on the phone on Monday looking for a list of things that might be brought up to disqualify a newly-elected Senator from occupying his seat.
There had been a couple of such cases after the last election, and then the Section 44 Affair had threatened to wreak havoc in both Houses. But that was one area where Ballantyne wouldn't have any concerns.
Issues about the citizenship of prominent politicians had started Ballantyne's kids asking questions of their own.