Michelle Grattan

The Age

Note of advice on a leading question

 “Just
CALM DOWN,” Michelle Grattan advises Peter Costello. Your agitation is
“premature” when you consider that it’s just 6½ months since Howard
increased the government majority and won the Senate. It’s still more
likely than not that John will step down next year, but “we suggest you
curb your gung-ho barrakers,” says Grattan. As for Howard’s Athenian
comments, “we were shocked to see you so gullible, when all the time
we’ve thought you so wily”. In the sporting parlance the PM so likes,
Grattan says the comments were “one of the great own-goals” of his
prime ministership. But she warns the PM that a leadership fight could
trash the party – and “as you’ve always said, division is death”.		 Crikey says: Another Gallery heavy offers context amid all the heat and light.

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Peter Ellyard

The Australian

Dreams could turn us into whatever we want

 Australians
should have more “destination conversations” about probable and
preferred futures for Australia, says futurist Peter Ellyard.
Culturally we avoid such conversations because “we are much more
comfortable with means conversations than ends conversations”.
Currently in Australia we have too much prophecy based on more of the
same, and not enough vision based on becoming different, says Ellyard.
This means most of our conversations about our future relationship with
countries like China are based on a vision of a similar Australia and a
different China, with Australia remaining a “future taker” while China
becomes a “future maker”.		 Crikey Says: An interesting if somewhat predictable view of Australia’s lacklustre ability to think deeply about its future

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Christopher Bantick

Courier-Mail

Priest of profligacy

 Peter
Hollingworth learnt little from his experience as governor-general,
says Christopher Bantick. The release of official figures on
Hollingworth’s recent expenditure of taxpayers’ money is “galling”,
says Bantick, “particularly for those who have little”. Since leaving
office in May 2003, Hollingworth has continued to cost the taxpayer
$1,621 a day, raising the issue of “how this will be seen by the very
people he is supposed to serve, as an Anglican priest first and
foremost and secondly, as a former governor-general”. 		Crikey Says: A vitriolic attack on the former governor-general and his failure to understand public sensitivities – again.

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Paul Keating

The Age

Tories gamble Churchillian legacy on race card

 British
Tory leader Michael Howard is putting at risk his country’s integrity
by following the Australian Liberal campaign agent Lynton Crosby, says
Paul Keating. “How wrong it is for Michael Howard’s Conservative Party
to tread the slippery and sleazy track of race to ingratiate themselves
with that proportion of the electorate always susceptible to this
malignant appeal,” says Keating. “Only the shabbiest of political
figures has any truck with this stuff”. In 2001, John Howard ran a
“despicable” election campaign against asylum seekers, which left
Australia’s moral compass broken and our underlying compasison
compromised. “A national leader should always be searching for the
threads of gold that run through a society, that lift us up and bind us
together,” says Keating.		 Crikey Says: What else would you expect him to say?

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