Love from all your friends

I met Margo Kingston for the first time on 23 September 1993, when I was a Captain in the Army and posted as Aide-de-Camp to Governor General Bill Hayden. Here's my journal entry for the night:

23 September 1993: …dinner tonight for Francesca Beddie (former DFAT colleague of the Boss). Sat next to Margo Kingston - journo for Canberra Times. Have read her pieces on and off. Arrived dressed in black, looking every inch the classic Leftie (one-dimensional, etc). Anyway, proved to be one of the most steel-trap minds I've ever met. Truly multi-dimensional, great intellect, really impressive. We had a great chat. I found her bloody captivating, and exactly what I think a great journo should be: strong-minded, open-minded, broad philosophy. Have to admit, found her bloody sexy, too. Really enjoyed the night…I played all the contentious questions - 'navy sexual harassment', 'Hayden's history and personality', 'Government House' shit, etc - dead-pan. There was the odd gentle probe alright. You'd expect that from a good journo. Enjoyable night. Quite pissed, actually.

I met a lot of journalists that year - Oakes, Kelly, Ramsey, O'Brien, all the self-important Famous Authoritative & Responsible Typers & Talkers, or FARTTs, that constitute 'mainstream journalism'. Most of them were nice enough, but none of them had much time for a conservative, junior Army officer whose key purpose, as far as they were concerned, was handing around chocolates during after-dinner drinks. Of all the Canberra Insiders I ever got the chance to talk with, only Margo really gave a shit about my opinions and listened to my answers as if she wanted to hear them.

So it was no great surprise to me seven years later when Margo took me and my opinions seriously again, even though like most Webdiarists I remain a complete nobody as far as the 'Canberra Game' goes. And it was no surprise that she continued to take me seriously, and give me more and more opportunities to put my opinions into the public domain as Webdiary developed. It doesn't surprise me that, thanks to her personal example, her tenacity and drive and relentless, hard-nosed idealism, Webdiary has been such a successful and ground-breaking experiment in participative journalism for so long. Knowing Hamish and the current team it won't surprise me at all if keeps going successfully on, too, even without such a direct input from her. The whole point about taking someone else's opinions seriously, and treating them like an equal and an adult, is that you encourage a reciprocal response in them. Margo never played the 'First Among Equals' prima donna, and from the start treated everyone here in a genuinely democratic manner - if you wanted to have a say, you could. End of story. It was all up to you (which is why I always laugh at those who claimed Webdiary is loaded to the 'left'; if that's so, it's solely because those on the right are too lazy to get off their bums and contribute.)

This is why Webdiary isn't going to disappear, even if MK does, too. We'll all keep it rolling along, somehow - including, no doubt, those creeps who only ever use the 'Diary for the charming purpose of calling MK ugly, stupid, mentally ill and a loony, etcetera. It's funny, isn't it, that some of the most vitriolic Webdiary-haters have also been some of the most durable and dutiful contributors. (Nice to see good old Imre pop in for a visit on MK's last day…hi Immers, you old stayer, you.)

By the way, here I'd just like to ask something I've wanted to ask for nearly five years, but have always been stopped by Margo, who never wanted to get into tit-for-tatting with her grubbiest critics: to all you cyber-jerks out there who think it's funny to call a woman 'ugly' in public, what sort of men are you, exactly? Haven't you got sisters, or mums, or daughters? Don't you ask yourself what they'd think of such hateful personal insults? Aren't you embarrassed by yourselves as men? Jesus, I know I am on your behalf.

Grooming stank - if it wasn't for The Australian's Senior Editorial Writer we might never have realised what that was an anagram of. Thank God for Rupert Murdoch, I always say.

Anyway, sorry, this is supposed to be a tribute to someone I admire enormously, a woman I've been proud to call a friend for a few years now. I just want to write down, unfortunately without much editing or coherence or completeness (since I've just knocked off and my brain is still floating in pub dishwater), some of the great things about this remarkable person, whom this site will, with luck, welcome back often.

She's the most honest public figure I've ever known; honest to the point of self-destruction, of making herself vulnerable and an easy target - invariably hit by cheap shooters, too. Margo isn't naïve about public life - far from it. She knows exactly how the game is played and always knew what sort of shit she'd cop for wearing her heart on her sleeve. But she also realised years ago that the only way that Australian journalism will ever change - improve - is for individual Australian journalists to lead by (scary, ground-breaking) personal example.

So she always did. And it's cost her a lot.

She's been incredibly generous to Webdiarists with her time and space and, lately, her money. God, if some of you only knew the half of what it's cost her. MK's tough, but to those of you who obviously set out to do so, don't feel sad that you haven't managed to hurt her deeply enough over the years. Because you have, to the point of helpless, frustrated tears and profound depressions. Well done. You must be very proud. Why would you want to hurt her so badly - call her a 'loon', a 'crazy', a 'bitch', a 'Jew-hater', a 'terrorist-lover' (and much worse)? Why would you want to abuse her good faith in allowing you to post here, or inviting you to write a column, or contribute a chapter to a book? What - because she's sometimes called John Howard or George Bush or Bob Carr or Rupert nasty names herself? So you think they need your protection from big bad Margo, do you?

I'm sure Mr Bush and Mr Howard and Mr Murdoch, and other powerful men and women who will still be here when she is gone, are very grateful for your protection. Well done. You really know how to go after the hard targets, don't you. Sorry, again, excuse my mild bitterness. It's not exactly becoming. Sorry, MK. I know you hate the negative stuff. Margo's kind, and compassionate, and smart, and good drinking company, too, because she's also funny. No, honestly, she is; Margo's always had a great sense of humour, even though she thinks she doesn't. Unfortunately one thing about running a website that's a collaboration of diverse and often earnest voices is that you have to surrender a bit of your own sense of the ridiculous in public, lest you get good faith contributors offside. One man's joke is another's insult, and all that. MK has a finer sense of black irony than most. If she wasn't free to wield it as often as she might have liked here at the 'Diary then it's because when you're trying hard to take everyone's opinion seriously, you have to take everyone's opinion…well, seriously.

She's a great reporter. Tough and fearless - she's especially not afraid to risk making a fool of herself in public, which is one of the greatest and most underrated assets any modern reporter can have. It's rare, too. The vast majority of Australian journos lie awake night praying that, next day, they don't make a fool of themselves in the Big Press Conference. That's why they're such lemmings; it's that mundane: they all have wet dreams about being iconoclastic and fiercely independent, but wet themselves when actually faced with the opportunity to do so. Go and watch the video of Margo taking on Bob Carr some time; in the background you see row after row of meek little lamb, shuffling in embarrassment while MK went after Carr solo. These are the same big tough pack dwellers who lambast Carr endlessly nowadays - he's not Premier, see.

Margo's got more guts than the entire Press Gallery. What a pack of pussycats they are…oh look, I'd better stop now. I could go on about her but it's late, I'm f**ked, and this article is not doing six years of brilliant endeavor (and privileged friendship) the slightest justice. Sorry, Margo; this decision's caught me a bit short and clumsy. Probably caught us all on the hop. In the end, I think you all know how we all feel about you anyway. But my thanks to you, and especially to the current Webdiary team, for letting me late-night-ramble a bit and have a go explaining it again here; here, on your last WD day (for now), perhaps, as an early and long-time contributor, loosely representative of all your proud 'Diarists over the years.

We all just wanted to say how much we are personally grateful to this remarkable women; how proud we are - I am, many here at Webdiary are - to call you our friend and, just incidentally, to close this MK era in a traditional Webdiary end-of-year way, by announcing you, mate, as the Webdiary Meeja Watch Most Memorable Australian of 2005.

Take care of yourself, girl. Be proud of what you've built here, visit often, and above all, know how much we all love you. We love you, MK.

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Dinner with Bill Hayden

Submitted by Stephen Callaghan on December 24, 2005 - 9:38pm.

Hi Jack. As usual a great piece. You tell a bloody great yarn!

I haven't met Margo but I can still honestly say that I admire what she has achieved. She is almost the perfect Aussie. There is just that little flaw that we don't talk about... (Ssshh. She is a Banana Bender, but try not to hold it against her.)

I went to a lunch at the Newcastle decommissioned steel mills at BHP, Newcastle in the early 90's. Bill Hayden (GG) was the guest speaker. I remember Bill had a sexy little (female) Aide-de-Camp seated upon his right. Didn't notice who was on his left. Could it have been you by any chance?

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