A COLD REALITY

After the euphoria… the questions. Tim Holding is down safely from the mountain top and he was well enough last night to devour a pizza. But in the cold hard light of day (not as cold or as hard as the ones he faced on Mt. Feathertop the post-mortems are beginning. And rightly so. Was it arrogance or pride that made him reject offers of assistance from other hikers on Sunday morning?  A day before he was rescued. He sort of answered some of those questions at his press conference.

Why did he ignore the signs warning people to hike in groups of four? If he’s such an experienced climber why didn’t he have a GPS or a homing beacon?

People are also raising questions about the cost of his rescue which I think is unfair.  You can never put a monetary value on saving a life. Surely we haven’t become that cold-hearted, that mercenary.

But a fair question can be asked:  Did he get special treatment?  On radio yesterday I think I was wrong. I rejected the idea. I believed that the rescue response would be the same for a missing child or an Alzheimer’s victim as for a missing politician.

Now I’m not so sure. And the Government and the Police have themselves to blame. Why all the secrecy about the Australian Federal Police spy plane with its secret heat-seeking, and night surveillance equipment?

Premier Brumby boasted at first it was used. And Victoria Police put out a press release referring to an ‘AFP planer’ and then tried to withdraw it and the Federal Police flatly denied they had any such planes. Which is a  lie.

So, the high tech plane was successfully used to pinpoint Holding’s location. Was such a plane offered in New South Wales when that British tourist was missing for 13 days? No.

Special treatment? I’m starting to think so.

And a couple of probably superfluous observations in the wash-up. Yesterday I mentioned the relieved reunion with family and partner. I said: We saw him briefly hug his mum and then he was approached by his partner, Ellen Whinnett. She went to give him a kiss and he pulled away from her. Couldn’t get past her quick enough to shake hands with a chopper pilot. What was that all about?

Didn’t he want the world to know that his partner is not only a Sunday Herald Sun reporter  but the newspaper’s political reporter who in a report card on the government ministers earlier this year described him as an up and comer….’

Today in the Herald Sun Ms.Whinnett writes ‘The awkward peck on the cheek we shared when he stepped off the recue helicopter didn’t really capture  my true feelings…’

And Neil Mitchell observes in his column today ‘Holding stepped from the rescue helicopter, like a prince on a royal tour, and shook hands with his shaken father, as tough greeting another boring diplomat.’

And another glimpse into Tim Holding’s soul. Ellen Whinnett also writes today ‘He went walking at Feathertop while I was with my terminally ill grandfather’.

What an arrogant and cold, self-centred turd.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009