No great surprise

No one will have been greatly surprised that Alexander Downer is about to resign to take up some nebulous post for the UN in its work on Cyprus.
I suppose that Cyprus is still an issue, though one commentator has noted that they thought that Cyprus was all concluded 4 years ago.
I think that was pettiness, there is still work to do there. But lest we forget,(here) an ex tempore by-election (on current figures) will cost the taxpayer between 400 and 500 thousand dollars.
The same commentator noted that perhaps this should be deducted from the more thna generous superannuation that Alexander will collect, whilst also having the prestigious UN job and his won private consultancies. Kerching!

Appointing successors

One of the (perhaps few) things I have learnt in my fifty odd years is to be cautious about appointing one's successor. [a lesson to be learnt in a neighbouring diocese]

Not, might I add, being cautious about who one might appoint. But to be careful to not enter into the process of influencing those whose responsibility it is to actually do the choosing.

This is advice I feel should be offered to Prime Minister Howard. In fact, should have  been offered long ago. It no doubt was, but it should have been adhered to.

Now forgive me, but we live in a democracy don't we? And a democracy does not require a line of succession, or nepotism, or even favouritism...it requires that those designated to elect should elect who they see fit.

So it has always been inappropriate for the Liberal Party to say that Peter Costello is the next leader, and if they are in government then the next PM. While this may (for some) have expressed a factional reality/deal/arrangement or whatsoe'er...ancient advice would suggest that you should not count your votes before they are cast.

So it is not surprising that the ambitious Mr Turnbull is coy about whether Costello will succeed, even if he is a little more reticent today (here). 

Personally were I Treasurer Pete I wouldn't trust anyone to guarantee the succession, least of all Malcolm, Tony or Alexander. Perhaps wee Johnny knew this all along and is chirruping in his glee

Let's get a life

My feeling is that Chaser is a very dangerous political phenomenon ....for politicians that is... you can't live with them and you can't live without them.
Apart form the obvious 'moral' of the tale...how could they breach two security points in the biggest lockdown in our history?...it crystallises for me something about being Australian that I have been trying to put my finger on.
See a hole...and you must try and go through it!
See a restriction... and you must try and get round it
In the process of this, see an hypocrisy...and you must try and expose it.
Forget all the moralising about an ill-defined 'mateship' and a 'fair go', it is about the bravery to be reckless and throwing caution to the wind ...which so often produces startling results.
Apart from the danger that the Chasettes, no doubt, exposed themselves to (what if a trigger happy sniper had been spooked and let fire? .....I wonder if the good people of Sydney were aware that unless they were on their very best behaviour they were in danger of being shot by snipers...)
Any way 9/10 for Downer for laughing it off, 1/10 for Rudd for being po-faced and serious.
20/10 for Licciardello, Morrow, Reucastel et al.
As I say, I suspect the electorate will side with the prank rather than the security debacle.

Call me incredulous

I love the Sunday political interviews; obviously with nothing better to do (why don't you go to church you alleged Christians?) they do the rounds of interviews snippets of which are then replayed on various news bulletins short of genuine stories. {I know from my days as a Synod Media Officer that I used to love Sundays and desperately hoped no one would get eaten by a shark and so gazump us on the 6 oçlock news).
Any way this morning we see the Rudd-slurring machine was out in full force.
First doubt was cast on Kevin's version fo what happened to his family when he was a child. Did they get evicted from their farm or not. Now, anyone knows that we get curious ideas of what may or may not have happened. When a parent dies and you share stories with your siblings you often realise that you often have a different perspective. You may even, because of youth, totally misunderstand things. Now that is different for example than lying about whether or not you actually got a PhD, or stretching the truth about whether or not you avoided military service (as Mr Bush appears to have done). So let's get real fellahs and start talking about this guy is on about, not about how naive he was when he was 10.
Ah say the aptly named Abbot and Costello's of this world with their mate Alex (yes the one who likes to wear tights and high heels) but it goes to the fact of whether you can trust him.
So push me over and make me eat a banana covered in mustard if yesterday I didn't hear also Costello and Downer say two of the most bizarre things I have heard in this current round of mud-slinging.
Costello: Nobody's hurled more mud in the Parliament than Mr Rudd.
WRONG- You Mr Costello are mud thrower extraordinaire!
Downer: This is a man who will say absolutely anything to get elected
WRONG-You Mr Downer will say, and are saying, anything.

What has caused this total distortion of the truth? The truth is they have been in office too long and have begun believing their own version of reality. It is a strange (forgive me if I have told you this before) I met Downer briefly a couple of times at school functions. In one conversation when he was pontificating about the Keating government I was surprised how vitriolic he was.
The things is, he said, they are so arrogant!
It's true PaulKeating was, but so was Hawke and Fraser and Menzies and who ever. I realised then that political arrogance is not so much a personal characteristic as a part of the baggage of office. I predicted that within a few years of election we would say the same thing about a Liberal government. It is called, I suspect, hubris.

We are witnessing political game playing at its absolute worst when the mud thrower extraordinaire will accuse his opponent of his own most obvious fault. And when the mouth in fish net stockings will likewise accuse the same of saying anything to get elected.
Surely, as titillating as this is, the electorate must demand more of its politicians than this demeaning name calling which says more about the absuers than the absued.