SHUFFLE THE PACK

The Monday after Grand Final weekend. The weekend when the boys came to play the men. Collingwood destroyed by the Brisbane Lions as they deservedly won their third premiership in a row and they start as favourites to win next year too.

And while Collingwood looks at shuffling its line-up for next year the Prime Minister has done just that.

John Howard, getting ready for a federal election in the next twelve months has made some shrewd moves.

Election-mode moves. He’s put his chief head kicker, Tony Abbott, into the crucial and controversial Health portfolio while arguing that he is not trying to dismantle Medicare.

He has left his aching heir-apparent, Peter Costello, as Treasurer, even though he was rumoured to be keen on Alexander Downer’s job as Foreign Affairs Minister.

He has dumped the dumb and disgraced Wilson Tuckey. Has moved the ineffectual Kay Patterson.

But the biggest move was to reward his stalwart – the man who more than any helped him win the last federal election. Howard has taken the longest serving Liberal in the House and promoted Philip Ruddock from Immigration Minister to Attorney General.

That means the taciturn Daryl Williams moves to the job of Communications Minister with Richard Alston calling it a day.

The leader of the Greens, Senator Bob Brown, says that Prime Minister Howard has rewarded the “ heartless and the harsh”.

He3 also says that Philip Ruddock’s appointment as Attorney-General is an attack on Australia’s law-making process. Not sure how you draw that long bow.

I asked Ruddock after the last federal election why he didn’t ask for a portfolio change and he said his work was not finished. Obviously now, post-Tampa, he feels it is.

Monday, September 29, 2003

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2002