GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 715

14 February 2025

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DAVID MARR GETS OUT HIS CRYSTAL BALL 

There was a time when the English – so very English – looked forward to the First Sparrow in Spring.  Media Watch Dog has lower sights – it looks forward to the First Election Prediction in any season of the year in any country.

So, Gerard Henderson – Ellie’s (male) co-owner – was delighted when MWD fave David Marr had this to say at the end of his interview with Kathleen Stephens (former US Ambassador to South Korea) on Radio National Late Night Live.  The date was Thursday 13 February. And Comrade Marr had failed to abide by the saying which Hendo likes to proclaim.  Namely, that it is unwise to make political predictions, especially about the future. Let’s go the transcript:

David Marr: Kathleen, it’s going to be such fun reporting on America after the Half Terms isn’t it?

Kathleen Stephens:  Once they come, yeah.

David Marr:  Mm. Mm.  Once they come.  I mean I just don’t, kind of, imagine [President] Trump acknowledging that he’s lost complete control of Congress – which would certainly be, really, at this stage, looks pretty inevitable.

So, there you have it.  The Prophet Marr is predicting in February 2025 that by January 2027, the Republicans will have lost control of both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.  A frightfully interesting prediction to be sure.

  • FOUR CORNERS IN DENIAL ABOUT ANTISEMITISM IN AUSTRALIA

Speaking on The Kenny Report on Wednesday, Melbourne businessman and former ABC board member Joe Gersh said that, with respect to anti-Semitism, the ABC was more part of the problem than part of the solution. He mentioned the fact the ABC did not send a crew to cover the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – unlike Network 7, Network 10 and Sky News. Media Watch Dog understand that the ABC sent one of its London based crew to Madrid recently to cover the case of sexual assault against the former coach of the Spanish Women’s Football Squad. It’s an important court case but nowhere near the importance of the Holocaust.

On Monday 17 February, Four Corners is running a program titled “Leaving Hate” about an Australian neo-Nazi group. An important issue, to be sure. But one which pales into insignificance when compared to the current outbreak of anti-Semitism in Australia. It’s over a year since the outbreak of anti-Semitism in Australia. But Four Corners has not considered the topic fit for a 45-minute program. Enough said.

  • RETURN OF THE BONGE – TO RN BREAKFAST

Wasn’t it great to hear Paul Bongiorno of The [Boring] Saturday Paper back on National Breakfast after a very long break? As Media Watch Dog recalls, the last time Comrade Bonge had a slot on RN Breakfast was when Fran Kelly was in the presenter’s chair. MWD missed some of the discussion. But avid readers will not be surprised to learn that your man Bongiorno concluded his comments with a criticism of Peter Dutton and the Opposition. As mentioned below, Bonge appeared with his ideological mate Shane Wright. Re which see the Shane Wright & Candlesticks segment.

MWD will keep avid readers advised of developments The Thought of Bonge.

  • NINE’S NIKI SAVVA JOINS EX-NINE JOURNALIST MARK KENNY ON NICK BRYANT’S SATURDAY EXTRA

While on the topic of the ABC’s lack of viewpoint diversity, do avid Media Watch Dog readers recall that when former BBC journalist Nick Bryant replaced Fran (“I’m an activist”) Kelly as the presenter of ABC Radio National’s Saturday Extra he made the following pledge? The date was 25 January 2025:

Nick Bryant: We’re committing to bringing you a diversity of voices, some of whom you’ll agree with, some of whom you won’t. But, hopefully, all of them will be insightful and make more sense of our world.  And we will try to abide by one of the first rules of journalism, never be boring.  I hope you enjoy the new Saturday Extra.

On 31 January, Sky News’ The Media Show’s  Jack Houghton wondered how long Comrade Bryant’s commitment to viewpoint diversity would last.  He was correct to do so. On 7 February a discussion on social cohesion in Australia saw the left-of-centre Bryant talking to the left-of-centre Tim Costello and the left-of-centre Anthea Hancock about social cohesion in Australia.  Needless to say, everyone essentially agreed with everyone else in a left-of-centre way. See last week’s Media Watch Dog.

Then on Saturday 8 February, Nick Bryant presided over a “Political Wrap” with Nine columnist Niki Savva (a Peter Dutton antagonist) and the Australian National University’s Mark Kenny (another Peter Dutton antagonist).

The segment ran for 20 minutes as Comrade Savva essentially agreed with Comrade Kenny who essentially agreed with Comrade Bryant who essentially agreed with Comrade Savva who essentially agreed with herself.

In introducing the pair, Bryant mentioned the “two great Canberra watchers”.  Savva referred to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as “Albo” – it was as familiar as that.  Kenny spoke at considerable length without saying much of consequence – he even used the word “zeitgeist”. Well done professor.  Savva repeated the line that she had run in her Sydney Morning Herald/Age column on 6 February – namely that Peter Dutton is a “Little Sir Echo” of President Donald Trump – but provided scant evidence.  In any event, it was just abuse.

And so it went on and on.  Here is the fave comment of Ellie’s (male) co-owner. It occurred when Comrade Savva was fanging Opposition leader Peter Dutton and President Trump while asking questions which she did not provide time for anyone to answer.  Let’s go to the transcript:

Niki Savva: Now, I think if he [Peter Dutton] continues on the path that he’s on at the moment, the kind of tactics that he’s using, then the likelihood is that he will fall short [at election time]. I mean Dutton – people look at Trump and they’re transfixed, right? Because it’s like a reality show, better than Married at First Sight – you know, much more interesting and much more unpredictable. But in the end, it’s chaos. It’s chaos, it’s unpredictable and, you know, there is a lot of madness there about, you know, with golf balls and air crashes. And, you know, whether diversity caused the air crash and so on. Do you know what I mean? It’s all this – uh – well, you know, better than me – um – all the chaos that they keep seeing and it’s exhausting.

Media Watch Dog’s response to Niki Savva’s question: “Do you know what I mean?” is – Not on your Nelly. It’s just verbal sludge.  Can You Bear It? [No. Not really, now that you ask.  The program’s long segment with long answers by the “two great Canberra watchers” was just so boring. – MWD Editor.]

  • LA TINGLE CRITICISES THE MEDIA FOR NOT REPORTING THE DREYFUS/SUKKAR EXCHANGE WHICH HER OWN 7.30 DID NOT COVER

As avid Media Watch Dog readers know, the ABC is a Conservative Free Zone without one conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its key news and current affairs programs.

When there are personnel changes at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster, it’s invariably a case of out with the ideological old and in with the ideological new.

For example, ABC Radio National Breakfast in 2025 saw former left-of-centre presenter Patricia Karvelas replaced with left-of-centre Sally Sara.  And ABC’s RN’s Late Night Live saw left-of-centre Phillip (“How many times have I told you that I was a teenage communist?”) Adams replaced by left-of-centre presenter David Marr.

Indeed “Late Night Left” – as MWD calls it – provides the following commentators on the politics of Australia, the United States and Britain.  Every Monday, Laura (“the Morrison government was replete with ideological bastardry”) Tingle talks about Australia.  Then every second Tuesday, the American leftist Bruce Shapiro comments on American politics.  And every second Wednesday, the British columnist and broadcaster Ian Dunt fangs political conservatives in Britain. Get the picture?

On 10 February LNL’s “Laura Tingle’s Canberra” was titled “Shutting Down Mark Dreyfus”. This was an account of how in the House of Representatives that very day the Opposition had attempted (unsuccessfully) to move a motion during Question Time.  This is how LNL described the event:

Attorney General and Jewish MP Mark Dreyfus has lashed out at the Opposition for politicising anti-Semitism, but there was outrage in parliament today when the Coalition Manager of Opposition Business, Michael Sukkar, tried to shut him down while he was discussing his family history during the Holocaust.

Let’s go to the transcript when the following discussion took place:

Laura Tingle:  [Mark Dreyfus’ speech] was incredibly powerful. But the strange thing is, David, it doesn’t seem to have been all that widely reported – which I’m mystified about.

David Marr: Well, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian immediately had reports online. But it wasn’t on the ABC News, it wasn’t on 730, it wasn’t on the commercial news as I understand. Perhaps in the newspapers tomorrow. But it is a remarkable event, and what – are people shy of reporting in this area at the moment?

Laura Tingle: Look I don’t know that it’s shy. I think everybody – you know, there’s been so much noise, and I think the tradition of taking what happens in parliament seriously or as being a moment in itself has, sort of, somehow been lost along the way. I don’t know. I’m very confused.

So, Comrade Tingle, in confused mode, was incensed that the media had not covered the Sukkar/Dreyfus confrontation.  However, she overlooked the fact that ABC’s 7.30 was one of the news and current affairs programs which did not report the story on 10 February. And who is the 7.30 political correspondent?  It’s La Tingle.  Which raises another question:  Can You Bear It?

  • MEDIA WATCH PRESENTER LINTON BESSER OVERLOOKS SARAH FERGUSON’S DUD “TRUMP/RUSSIA” PROGRAM WHILE CLAIMING THAT CHANNEL 9’s FIND MY BEACH HOUSE IS INFERIOR TO FOUR CORNERS

As avid Media Watch Dog readers are aware, the ABC TV Media Watch program resumed on Monday 3 February 2025 after what some journalists like to call a Well Earned Break – of nine weeks.  Yes, for a whole nine weeks.  In last week’s issue, MWD analysed the first program of the year presented by Linton Besser, who has replaced Paul Barry.

Comrade Besser is a welcome change after the increasingly supercilious Paul Barry. However, like his predecessors, he seems likely to provide lotsa copy which can be used by Ellie’s (male) co-owner. Which is good news indeed.  After all, every Media  Watch presenter since the program’s commencement in 1989 has been a left-of-centre type from within the ABC Family. Reflecting the reality that the ABC is a Conservative Free Zone.

On 10 February, Media Watch’s  lead story was on President Donald J. Trump’s “circus”.  Media  Watch is supposed to be a serious program.  In criticising the Trump administration, it should be able to use language which is not hyperbolic.

Moreover, there was nothing new in Besser’s story.  And it had no direct relevance to the Australian media.  As to Besser’s second item – which was described as “ABC’s ‘Antoinette Issue’” – it dealt with Antoinette Lattouf’s wrongful dismissal case against the ABC.  Once again, there was nothing fresh in this report – Besser went over material which had already been covered in the electronic media, newspapers and social media.

So, was there a Media Watch SCOOP on 10 February? – MWD hears avid readers cry.  Well, yes, there was.

Linton Besser and staff – there are about ten in all – revealed that Network Nine’s Find My Beach House program on 13 December 2024 was a fraud.  The program, according to Comrade Besser, is “quintessential commercial TV – with host Shelly Craft guiding cashed up couples on the hunt for the perfect beachside getaway”.

However, it turned out that one couple (Lochie and Toneya) searching for their beachside getaway in the program aired on 13 December already owned their house. Fancy that.  As did another couple – Kristy and, apparently, her unnamed partner.

This is how the episode concluded:

Linton Besser: We asked Shelley Craft, Toneya and Lochie and Kristy for a response – but none of them chose to reply. So, was Channel Nine in on the gag too? It declined to say – and passed the buck to production company Abode. But since our phone call, Nine has scrubbed the series from its website. Yes, we know these shows aren’t trying to be Four Corners. But talk about selling your audience, and advertisers, down the river.

Now, that’s a bit hard on Find My Beach House – which has never run such absolute tosh as the Four Corners Trump/Russia “story of the century”.

As avid readers will recall, in June 2018 Four Corners ran a three-part series titled “Trump/Russia”.  This saw presenter Sarah Ferguson travel from Sydney to New York, Washington DC, London and Moscow investigating the allegations that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian government in Russia in order to win the November 2016 United States presidential election.

It turned out that  Comrade Ferguson’s “story of the century” was a complete dud – Fake News indeed. Sarah Ferguson’s expensive and lengthy travels to the United States, Britain and Russia produced no evidence to suggest that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.  “Trump/Russia” used graphic footage along with dramatic music to liven up what was an expensive non-story story.

The ABC could have saved a lot of money by waiting for The Mueller Report – i.e. the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III.  It found no collusion between President Trump and Russia – in spite of the fact that Mr Mueller and his Special Counsel team (which comprised many Hillary Clinton supporting Democrats) were no fans of President Trump.

And Linton Besser reckons that Find My Beach House is inferior to Four Corners.  Well, at least Network Nine covered the story of two real houses.  Whereas Four Corners’  “Trump Russia” conspiracy theory did not even have a foundation.  Can You Bear It?

  • ABC’S MEDIA WATCH: A DIVERSITY SCOREBOARD

Last week’s issue featured the below image of all the Media Watch hosts throughout the years.

Several avid readers noted that the white line-up is also very bloke-heavy – despite the ABC’s alleged commitment to gender and racial diversity. When Paul Barry stepped down, Janine Perrett was considered a strong contender for the role – with former Media Watch host Monica Attard suggesting Perrett should take over. When asked to fill in for Paul Barry after he had a cycling accident, Perrett called it her “dream job”, and was reportedly former executive producer Tim Latham’s first choice to cover for Barry. But when it came time to get a permanent replacement for Barry, another bloke got the call.

In 2019, the ABC announced its ABC 50:50 project, which according to the ABC includes the goal of “working to increase the contribution of women as expert talent or commentators and contributors across our programming.”

Ellie – who usually applies her mathematical abilities to canine matters such as calculating her BPM (barks per minute) – broke down how far away Media Watch is from reaching 50:50, or any of the ABC’s stated diversity goals.

  • 2 out of 9 hosts have been women.
  • Out of the total 36 years, 91.67% of the hosting was done by males, and 8.33% by females.
  • Media Watch hosts are 100% white

Ellie lamenting the lack of female representation on Media Watch

EDITORIAL

  • LATTOUF CASE REVEALS ABC’S DEFICIENT MANAGEMENT

Question:  How many ABC levels of management does it take for the ABC to terminate the employment of a casual radio presenter after three days into a five-day shift?  Answer:  Er, half a dozen or so.

In recent times, it has become more and more evident that the taxpayer funded public broadcaster – which is effectively a staff collective, or soviet – is poorly managed.

The ABC bangs on about the need for diversity – concerning race, gender and the like – but it has a glaring lack of viewpoint diversity.  It is a Conservative Free Zone without a conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its main news and current affairs television, radio and online outlets.  And then there is the poor management.

Kim Williams, the relatively new ABC chair, appears to be of the view that the ABC is weak in the areas of dramas, documentaries and comedy.  He is correct.  But there is plenty of drama and (unintended) comedy which could work as a documentary in the case that Antoinette Lattouf is currently taking in the Federal Court of Australia for wrongful dismissal.

Now Ms Lattouf is a competent journalist, albeit of the leftist activist kind.  Put simply, she should not have been employed to fill in a five-day shift on ABC’s Mornings program in Sydney on account of her activism. And she should not have been dismissed when she was over halfway through her short 5-day contract. To dismiss Lattouf in this manner was sure to be counterproductive.

Evidence provided to the Federal Court indicates that Lattouf was employed to help reach the ABC’s diversity targets on account of her Lebanese Australian background.  This was unfair to Lattouf since she was entitled to be considered without reference to her ethnic background. Then the ABC ran a technical legal case which implied that the Lebanese are not a race – this was subsequently withdrawn.  The ABC also had to apologise for accidentally naming some people who complained about Lattouf’s appointment.  More incompetence.

When a decision was made to terminate Lattouf’s contract – apparently due to her long-time position as a left-of-centre activist – it went through six levels of management as reporter Jason Om documented on ABC TV 7.30 on 12 February:

The hearings have revealed at least six layers of management played a role in her exit. Ms Lattouf worked in the ABC radio Sydney team. Her direct manager was Elizabeth Green. Above her was Mark Spurway. And above him was Steve Ahern. At the upper level was Ben Latimer. Above him was Chris Oliver-Taylor. Mr Oliver-Taylor reported to David Anderson, managing director who’s also the ABC’s editor-in-chief – ultimately the buck stops with him. Sitting above ABC management at the time was Ita Buttrose, the chair of the ABC board. The board operates separately to management and does not deal directly with the everyday running of the broadcaster.

Even Laura Tingle, the ABC staff-elected Board member, got involved by contacting the (then) ABC Chair Ita Buttrose to express her concern at Lattouf’s dismissal.  Then current ABC employee Jan Fran criticised her employer about this matter in an article in the leftist Crikey magazine.

Meanwhile, Lattouf v The ABC is likely to be of considerable expense to the taxpayer funded public broadcaster – whatever the outcome of the case.  The ABC has about two dozen lawyers on staff and contracts out some legal work.  Yet it has got stuck into a legal mess which the Australian taxpayer will have to fund.  To at least some extent, the ABC managing director does not seem to be in charge despite the fact that he is also editor-in-chief.

NEW SEGMENT – THE TEALS AND THE MEDIA 

  • TEAL TINK GETS TO DO A VALEDICTORY ON ABC TV NEWS BREAKFAST

Due to enormous demand by Media Watch Dog members, Ellie’s (male) co-owner has decided to report on how the Teals are getting soft media coverage – particularly in Nine newspapers and on the ABC.

Take Kylea Tink, for example, the Independent MP for North Sydney whose seat has been abolished in the Australian Electoral Commission’s redistribution. It so happens that Ms Tink is Ellie’s local member – until the election.

Ms Tink received Page One coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald on 7 December 2024 where she appeared with Nicolette Boele – a new Teal on the block who is hoping to win the Liberal Party held seat of Bradfield in Sydney’s well-heeled North Shore.  Yep – you’ve got it.  An outgoing politician and an aspiring politician received Page One coverage. A non-story story, to be sure.

Then on 11 February, Ms Tink received a soft interview on ABC TV’s News Breakfast.  She is one of the many politicians who will be departing the Commonwealth Parliament before the next election.  But Tink, who presents as a Community Independent – in spite of the fact that only 25.2 per cent of the North Sydney community gave their first preference to her at the May 2022 election – received special coverage on a leading ABC News program. In other words, three quarters of the North Sydney Community would have preferred a local member other than Teal Tink who received 52.9 per cent of the vote after preferences.

This is how Ms Tink looked forward to her life after politics – or is it?  Needless to say – she is EXCITED about her future. Let’s go to the transcript:

James Glenday: Are you going to run again, or is this it? I sort of suspect we’re going to see you either as a staff member or putting your hand up to run somewhere in the northern parts of Sydney in the next couple of years.

Kylea Tink: At the moment, my intention is to finish gracefully with my community…. My intention at the moment is to focus on doing the work I need to do through to the end of this term. I’ll step back for a while, at the end of this I think I need to regroup, but I just believe so deeply in the community independent movement, James, that I can’t see myself moving very far away from that. I’m very excited by what we’re going to see happen in the 2025 election.

For his part, Ellie’s male co-owner will miss Ms Tink. He recalls Ms Tink’s appearance on ABC TV’s Q&A when the North Sydney MP attempted to defend her (then) membership of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge. The date was 11 September 2023.  Let’s go to the transcript:

Patricia Karvelas:  And a show of hands on the panel – who’s got a Chairman’s Lounge membership?

Kylea Tink: Yeah. 

Patricia Karvelas: (Gasps)

Kylea Tink: But I’ve got to say…

Patricia Karvelas: Four out of…! (Stammers)

Kylea Tink: But I’ve got to say…

Patricia Karvelas: Hands down.

Kylea Tink: …a free drink… (Laughs) …a free drink and some stale peanuts is not going to stop me from calling them out when the behaviour is wrong.

Patricia Karvelas: Oh, Kylea, there’s…

Kylea Tink: So, I don’t… No, true!

Patricia Karvelas: There’s good stuff there. It’s better than stale peanuts. 

Kevin Hogan: Yeah, that’s right.

Patricia Karvelas: That’s the ordinary membership you’re talking about, let me tell you.

Kylea Tink: Maybe I’ve still got to go there.

Patricia Karvelas: Yeah. The nuts are good, I hear, in the Chairman’s Lounge. (Laughs) Next, let’s hear from Barry Kennedy.

Kylea Tink: (Laughs)

The presenter Patricia Karvelas made the obvious point – namely, that the Chairman’s Lounge offered more than “a free drink and some stale peanuts”.  In time, Ms Tink quit the Chairman’s Lounge.  In the words of the song The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, “when the laughter grew too loud”.

And so it came to pass that Ms Tink was forced back into the community where some mere mortals are content with peanuts of the stale genre.

 

Ellie Watches Her Teal MP get a Soft Interview on ABC TV Breakfast

Nine’s Shane Wright has risen without trace (as the late Kitty Muggeridge once said about the late David Frost) to become the senior economics correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald – not having published anything of note apart from newspaper articles and columns plus the occasional essay. Even so, you would expect a person in such an elevated position to know about the international energy market.

It’s only a few years since your man Wright ridiculed anyone who said that coal had any future as a part of energy supply – even in such markets as India, China and Indonesia. He declared on ABC TV Insiders on June 11, 2017 that “coal is like candlesticks” and compared those who said that there is still a demand for Australian coal exports with members of the Candle Makers Union circa 1870 who (allegedly) argued the case for candles over electricity. Now read on.

  • SHANE WRIGHT RETURNS TO RADIO NATIONAL WITH NO UPDATE ON THE FATE OF COAL

As mentioned in MWD’s ever-popular Stop Press segment, Radio National Breakfast featured a discussion of the week in politics on Valentine’s Day, Friday 14 February. As well as presenter Sally Sara, the lefty love-in featured The Saturday Paper columnist Paul Bongiorno and your man Wright – plus RN Breakfast political correspondent Melissa Clarke.

The subject of coal exports did not come up, which is a shame as it would have been a good time for Comrade Wright to update the ABC audience on his, now almost 8-year-old, prediction that Australian coal exports were on the way out.

The International Energy Agency reports that coal demand reached another all-time high in 2024, beating out the previous record set in 2023. Coal use is down in the West, but this decline has been more than made up for in Asia. Much of this coal is being used in China (which burns more coal than the rest of the world combined), but coal use is increasing in India, Vietnam, Indonesia and other Asian nations eager to modernise their economies.

On 7 January 2025 the Wall Street Journal carried a report by Jon Emont on Singaporean-born, now-Indonesian coal billionaire Low Tuck Kwong. Forbes estimates Low, the founder of Bayan Resources, is worth around $28 billion USD, putting him among the top 100 wealthiest individuals in the world in Forbes’ rankings. This wealth comes largely from Indonesian coal mines. Alastair McLeod, Bayan’s chief financial officer, is quoted as saying “We’re doubling our capacity. We believe there is 30 years or maybe 40 years of coal still going forward”.

Low Tuck Kwong is lucky he did not listen to Shane Wright’s 2017 warning about the impending end of coal demand. It would be difficult to become one of the world’s richest people selling candlesticks.

HISTORY CORNER

  • REMEMBERING JOHN MOORE (1936-2025)

Media Watch Dog does not abide by the maxim that it is wrong to speak ill of the dead. Or as the Romans would have said “De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum”. [Your schoolboy Latin is very impressive. – MWD Editor.]  Rather, MWD believes that the recently departed deserve an objective account of their time on this earth after they Cross the Jordan (as the saying goes).  Also, MWD is not into declaring that someone “passed”. What’s wrong with “died”?

But MWD digresses. On 22 January John Moore, the businessman and former Liberal Party parliamentarian, died.  He was 88 years of age. Moore entered the House of Representatives as the member for Ryan in Brisbane at the December 1975 election and resigned in February 2001 – causing a by-election which Labor won.  The Liberal Party won back Ryan at the November 2001 election.

John Moore held ministerial positions in the Coalition governments led by Malcolm Fraser and John Howard and also held significant shadow ministerial responsibilities during the Labor governments led by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. He was an efficient cabinet minister but had a low profile.

However, there was another side to Moore – as reflected in his decision to resign from the Howard government just nine months before the election scheduled for late 2001.  It was not the act of a team player.  And there is more.

On occasions, following Moore’s death, reference was made to the fact that, at the request of (then) Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, John Moore challenged (then) Liberal Party deputy leader John Howard for his position.  The date was 5 September 1985.

At the time, Howard was by far the best performer on the Opposition front bench. But Peacock, Moore and others tried to get rid of him.  Howard prevailed by 38 votes to 31 votes – and Peacock felt he (Peacock) had no option but to step down since Moore had seconded Peacock’s motion to replace Howard. Howard became leader of the Liberal Party in opposition.

If John Moore had any political sense at the time, he would have advised Peacock not to challenge his deputy – whose only fault was the perception that he was outperforming his leader.  Peacock later conceded to Gerard Henderson that he had misjudged the situation.  Moore never made such a concession.

Then, in May 1989, Moore partnered with Wilson Tuckey, Peter Shack and some others to bring down Howard as Liberal Party leader in favour of Peacock by means of a party room ballot. Moore and Tuckey boasted about it by talking to Marian Wilkinson on ABC TV’s Four Corners soon after.  A sign of arrogance along with poor judgment – which did considerable damage to the Coalition, under the leadership of Andrew Peacock, in the lead-up to the 1990 Federal election.

Not long after, John Moore told a Canberra radio station: “Ghosts are pretty irrelevant and I would have thought, in this case, ghosts have no substance.” (The Courier Mail, 9 September 1989). The comment about a certain ghost having “no substance” – was referring to John Howard.  Not a sign of good judgment.

In his memoir Lazarus Rising, Howard had this to say about the Coalition’s defeat in 1990:

The Coalition should have won the 1990 election. The Australian economy was in a recession, unemployment was over 9 per cent, housing interest rates were at 17 per cent or more and the Hawke Government had been in power for seven years….

The policy credibility of the Coalition was mortally wounded by the failure of the opposition to produce a health policy… Peter Shack, our spokesman, held a news conference revealing that there would not be a detailed health policy and then drove a nail into the Liberal Party’s coffin by saying that the Coalition did not have a particularly good record when it came to health policy. How could we really expect people to vote for us?

John Howard became Liberal Party leader again in January 1995 and won the March 1996 election in a landslide.

In the event, Howard handled Moore professionally and gave him senior roles in the Howard government.  This suggests that the Liberal Party was short of talent  in Queensland at the time and Moore filled the slot adequately.

John Moore invariably presented as one of those effete Liberals of his generation who – even in important positions made little impact on the public debate. His main political “hits” while in Federal politics were against his own side.

[As I recall, John Moore once had a clear “recollection” of an event that never happened – when he claimed for a number of years that he had played in the First Round at Wimbledon.  Moore eventually removed the reference from what he had submitted to Who’s Who in Australia. So it was a case of Game, Set and Match to the journalist who made the discovery. – MWD Editor.]

 

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Until next time

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