twenty nine? What are you going to advise Kevin 07 about – the hottest bars? But returning to my point, something I like to do on occasion during an article, Rudd’s problems have come about because having promised the voters Shangri-la, he’s failed to deliver a blade of grass in the Gobi Desert, let alone Nirvana. Yes, we have the apology to our Ingenious people. But that should have happened a long time ago. My view has always been with this Stolen Generator business, that if you nick someone’s generator, you should apologise for lifting the parts and then we all move on. I’ve never worked out why Howard couldn’t say sorry. Bad potty training would be my guess. But are the appalling circumstances for the Upper Regional people any different under Rudd? No, in fact they’re worse. Three hundred and twenty houses were to be built in the first term, thirty two have been finished – almost. Beware of white men bearing gifts.
Club reaction What about the rest? Too many back-flips to mention. It’s fine to announce new initiatives at the speed of sound, but if you don’t deliver you can’t blame the voters for not trusting you. The German playwright Bertold Brecht once observed, “there is one fundamental problem with the armoured tank. It’s driver.” So too the problem for the Labor Party, and I’m very loath to say, the other side of politics. Jaw dropping is not something one sees all that often down at the Melbourne Club but when word spread of Tony Abbott’s massive blunder on the 7.30 Report, some of the elder membership had conniptions. Good Lord, telling the voters that they shouldn’t believe what you say unless they get it in writing isn’t the smartest thing a politician might say. What came over the man? Look, I know Crusader Abbott is a practicing Catholic but there’s a time and place for the confession.
The effect at the Club was immediate. Poor old ‘Bumsie’ ( Sir Rodger Darling) was calling for oxygen, Vice Admiral Wilmonth-Smythe tipped his glass of port down his trouser legs and was predicting Armageddon, and I was forced to open another ‘69 Grange to steady my nerves.
Age of consent Look when it comes to telling political porkies, I take the very mature view that provided a porky is told, in private, between consenting adults could I care? Fate is a funny thing and Lord Turnbull must have cracked an even more expensive bottle of red as he watched the ABC. Malcolm, a word of advice from here on in – if you want the leadership back just remain silent. It is clear that keeping one’s trap shut is about the smartest trick in town. ■ Sir Murray Rivers QC (retired). A former distinguished Victorian Supreme Court judge, Sir Murray’s contribution to the nation’s public life continues as a great and very distinguished Australian
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The Australian Firefighter I 31