first day back

A lot of big stories and issues around over the past couple of weeks – while I was on the Gold Coast shooting a new series of All Bran commercials for Kellogg’s.

The Ashes loss (after people boasted it could be an Australian 5-nil whitewash) was exciting even though I am not a cricket tragic. And being on holidays I could stay up late to watch some of it.

It so consumed people that even the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, devoted his weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph to it yesterday. And already the knives are out for some members of what has been one of the greatest Aussie teams ever. People calling them “Dad’s Army” and calling for veterans’ heads.

Speaking of cricketers: while I was away the jury verdict finally came down with a Not Guilty decision over the bouncer, or crowd controller, charged with the manslaughter of former Test player and 3AW colleague David Hookes.

It was a tragedy. But I believe the Not Guilty verdict was the right one. The jury believed one young man -- who took the stand on his own behalf and faced cross-examination – over a David Hookes girlfriend and his cricketing mates who had a hefty drinking session the night Hookes died. And remember, in all the shock and emotion after David Hookes died there were people calling for a murder charge.

One of the biggest issues right now is, of course, the spiralling price of petrol. And I know because I own a real gas-guzzler.

Some weird quotes in various news articles in recent days. The Sunday Herald Sun had a story yesterday about a family with five cars and a weekly petrol bill of $600. Presumably they all work and all pay for their own. One daughter is quoted as saying” Mum is trying to sell her car for a smaller one but Dad needs a big car with all his travelling”. Figure that out.

The  Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun yesterday invited to cut out and send protest coupons to the RACV. What can the RACV do about it? Intimidate OPEC countries?

But the weekend comment that takes the cake was under the byline of Federal Treasurer Peter Costello who wrote: “ High petrol prices do not increase revenue for the Commonwealth Government”. What a pork pie!

The Government gets more excise to start with. And how about GST?  If petrol is a dollar a litre the government gets ten cents GST. If it is $1.40 they get 14 cents a litre.

And speaking of politicians….. Mark Latham. One of the most vicious, self-serving, dummy spits of all time. His book, the Mark Latham Diaries, is released today but sections have already been leaked and serialised.

As the Sydney Sunday Telegraph said yesterday:”There is no point in pussy-footing around the issue. Mark Latham is a national disgrace”.

According Latham in his vindictive, self-serving, diaries… he was the only one in step. The only Laborite NOT to blame for the election loss. He has tried to destroy his successor Kim Beazley and his party along the way. You have to question his mental stability at times. And this was the man who tried to be Prime Minister.

Ironically, his bilious attacks on his former colleagues won’t destroy them. It has caused Latham to self-destruct. There’s a pretty lonely time ahead for him. He has even savaged his mentors Gough Whitlam and Keating. He has single-handedly taken every rung out of  his so-called ladder of achievement. What a bitter, bitter man.

Monday, September 19, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005