BEAZLEY’S BACK ?

It would have been fascinating to read the faces of two politicians this morning as they read their morning papers. Especially if Simon Crean was reading the Australian and Peter Costello was hunched over the Melbourne Age while gulping down his Wheaties.

Crean would have been mortified. The headline: Beazley – I want to Lead Again.

And it wasn’t a beat-up. The newspaper was quoting slabs of Beazley quotes from an interview he had given The Bulletin’s Maxine McKew for this week’s edition featuring another of the shrewd extractor’s now notorious lunches.

They must put something in the water.

He talked about what he would do if he were Prime Minister and only a political novice could read any other message than: “ I want another crack at it”.

He said things like: “ I guess there’s been no period of time when I have been so disappointed at not being prime minister as I have been in the past few months because I actually see Australia’s interests as having been very badly”.

He also talked about the need for more concentration on things like foreign policy. The implication being that Crean was a lightweight in that area.

And then there’s Peter Costello’s future. Prime Minister Howard went on radio yesterday and didn’t say he was keeping the job but certainly didn’t say he was handing over the baton any time soon.

It was convoluted but the message was there: “ I’m not quite ready to say it at the moment. I’ll be saying something about my medium and longer-term future in the not too distant future”.

That was enough though for Costello’s supporters to leak to the Age that they accepted now that the Treasurer will have to wait until AFTER the next federal election to realise his big ambition.

That it would be useless to try to unseat a leader when his stocks so high. And I believe Government backbenchers in marginal seats would launch a counter-campaign anyway to persuade John Winston to stay on even if he were considering leaving.

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2002