My Weekly Notebook and John Gorton series have been suspended temporarily. I regret the need for this and plan to resume them when circumstances allow. Last week I underwent eye surgery to remove a cataract from my left eye. The operation was successful, however the treatment will continue for several weeks. I am currently wearing an…
Political dirty tricks at Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and Sydney 2000 SYDNEY Sun-Herald, 1986-2007 Searching through personal papers I came across volumes of material I had collected over the years on the Olympic Games and the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee (IOC), the disgraced agency that runs the worldwide sports extravaganza every four years. Buried in the…
Whistleblowers jailed as US and UK attack press freedom Julian Assange is in jail in London and Ms Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, is in jail in Alexandria, Virginia. Assange is an Australian-born journalist and founder of Wikileaks while Private first class Manning is a transgender American soldier, turned whistleblower. Together they blew the lid…
John Gorton’s road to Canberra and the “Taiwan lobby” CANBERRA, 22 February 1950 to 10 January 1968 Arriving at the Canberra Press Gallery in 1963 I quickly realised that the venerable institution of Federal Parliament was under intense transition. The Old Guard of MPs in parliament and the trenchant Old Retainers in the Press Gallery…
John Gorton makes a “Labor” speech then joins the ultra-conservatives MYSTIC PARK, near Kerang, Victoria, Wednesday, 3 April 1946 John Gorton was 35, a war hero, farmer and silvertail from Sydney’s Shore School, Geelong Grammar and Oxford University when he made his first political speech. Local people called the community together for a “welcome home”…
John Gorton goes to Oxford OXFORD, England, February 1932 Brasenose College at Oxford University is famous for educating an elite to be the future prime ministers, judges, governors and Whitehall mandarins of Great Britain. For 500 years, the sons of the aristocracy (women were admitted for the first time only in 1974) were sent to…
A “real” bastard in The Lodge John Gorton was a bastard. He was born a bastard because he was conceived out of wedlock. His father was in a de facto relationship with a woman other than his lawful wife when he was born. While many of his predecessors at The Lodge – as well as…
The Prime Minister and I both become ASIO targets MURWILLUMBAH, 4 December 2007 Postal workers in the Tweed Valley, a sugar cane and banana-growing shire just south of the Queensland border, deliver mail to outlying rural properties on a motorbike. The intrepid couriers are mainly retirees earning a few extra bob on contracts with Australia…
Why exodus of Labor senator doesn’t make the news A ridiculous amount of media space is being given to the spate of Liberal Party resignations, both male and female, on the eve of forthcoming Federal Election. An eve-of-poll exodus by Federal MPs is not new. It has been going on for decades and it is a…
John Gorton’s Road to Bali SAIGON, Sunday 9 June 1968 When John Gorton became Prime Minister in January 1968 the major item on his domestic and foreign policy agenda was the Vietnam war. Against the strenuous advice of his own military, political and intelligence advisers, Gorton decided to visit Australian troops in Vietnam at the…
