Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Mortgages and families don’t have three or four-year terms. What Australians have said four times already is that, when it comes to workplace relations, we want the real system of checks and balances comprised of State and Commonwealth powers.

DECEMBER 2 UPDATE 2 PM: Gerard quits - will this save Costello? Should it? Costello tried to save himself by abandoning Gerard via the Oz today - see Costello rejects Gerard's defence. ATO did soft settlement with Gerard Co. after appointment - see Gerard's $75 million to settle tax 'sham'.

"I am not sure any of the commentary about Robert Gerard, in the media or parliament, has come to grips with the central issue. It's not the question of how Mr Gerard came to be appointed to the Reserve Bank board. It's not the question of whether he was guilty of tax evasion. The real issue is how the ATO arrived at a settlement with Mr Gerard and his companies. Peter Costello, even on the most generous view, can never be seen to have done the right thing when he sits at both ends of two obscure processes, the appointment of a new member to the Reserve Bank board and the out-of-court settlement of tax matters involving the same person." John Miner

"I felt on 11 November 1975 that my value as a citizen was nil - when I had been implicitly told, when the officer at Charlestown handed me the two ballot papers on that Saturday morning in May, 1974, that my country considered me sufficiently mature and important to the community to have a say in the election of its government. ... If, as is commonly said, people don't trust politicians, it could be the fault of many politicians; but if, as is equally apparent, they don't trust the political system, nobody bears more of the blame than the late John Kerr." John Miner

There has been a view among political reporters that the private can be separated from the political. It’s the same as the view – once dominant and still prevalent - among sports reporters that what happens on tour stays on tour. As various cases of the past two or three years have shown in sport, that’s not really tenable. Perhaps it was the remorseful recognition that they had failed which prompted Sydney’s media to respond with the throttles wide open when they were upstaged from Canberra. It’s a question worth further examination because our democracy depends not only on the behaviour of politicians. The media have a proper role, too.

"When you amend the Constitution you amend it permanently. What one Parliament can do under the power another Parliament can undo. Just as the conservatives of 1946 saw a Communist plot behind the proposal, so the ALP sees a conservative government wishing to smash trade unions and workers’ conditions and rights. And they are both right." John Miner on how Australians have always said no to demands by Labor and non-Labor federal governments to seize control of industrial relations law from the States

In an advertisement in the Canberra Times, Professor Gavin Mooney suggested that people in DIMIA should examine their consciences. A letter to the editor from DIMIA's First Assistant Secretary (Parliamentary and Legal) Des Storer dubbed it "a personal attack on the integrity of public servants”, then took advantage of his position to publish his response on DIMIA's website, a resource Professor Mooney doesn’t have. I and many like me would never have known about Professor Mooney’s idea if Des hadn’t used the website to defend his troops against a suggestion that might have been good for their souls. John Miner reports.