Slumbering Green

Like everyone I’ve been watching the news reports about the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation of former New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian. She must now be feeling like someone with a car right on her rear bumper bar – this happened to me just the other day and I pulled over to let the guy pass me and go on his way (but in Berejiklian’s case she’s the target and so won’t be able to get away). Not in the short term anyway. Longer-term she’ll emerge from this debacle prosperous in some other walk of life and in five years’ time when people report on her activities the community’ll need reminding of why she quit office. What she’ll definitely be remembered for will be her generosity. Berejiklian’s urge to help other people is what made her such a great premier but it’s what led her to indulge Daryl Maguire as well. Berejiklian identified transport as a big issue for Sydneysiders so embarked in an extensive program of spending on roads and rail. She saw that...

Controversy is the business model of News Corp and recent events have shown it to be led by individuals who are masters at keeping the heat turned up to just under boiling point. ‘Media Watch’ on 18 October concentrated entirely on News Corporation in an attempt to try to understand the latest switch – Rupert Murdoch’s reported stance with regard to the issue of climate change – which has helped the ruling Liberal-National coalition adjust its own position as well as keeping managers actively involved in the public sphere.  This is their natural element and, rather than being fazed by controversy, they welcome it because it results in more clicks on stories and therefore more advertising dollars. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Paul Barry noted, furthermore, major advertisers like the NRMA and Coles have started to adjust their policies – and publicly air them – so it’s become incumbent on media executives to conform. As I pointed out in January, what’s more, global m...

In a way it was the ideal timing for Gladys Berejiklian to leave office: just before Freedom Day, at a time when the people of New South Wales prepare for opening up, for haircuts, for weddings, for convivial gatherings in pubs where relieved hosts are stocking up on supplies. Dominic Perrottet was right to thank the people of the state he leads. It’s been their dedication to equity and an ingrained aversion to death and suffering that has brought us to this happy place, just a few short days away from liberty. On LinkedIn I left unanswered a comment on a post a woman’d made about her time as Berejiklian’s speechwriter. Berejiklian was also in the habit of thanking people for doing the right thing. The LinkedIn comment came from an American who so deplored the lockdowns that he said our state was reviled Stateside, but when I went back to the page to find what he’d written later, days after I’d first read his words, they’d been deleted. I regretted his feelings of remorse because I wan...