Bob Carr: I could’ve been kinder as NSW Premier
BOB Carr has said he regrets not being kinder during his 10 years as NSW Premier in a candid interview with the Southern Courier.
Southern Courier
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BOB Carr has said he regrets not being kinder during his 10 years as NSW Premier in a candid interview with the Southern Courier.
The former Maroubra state Labor MP was speaking ahead of the launch of his autobiography, Run For Your Life.
“Unlike many political biographies I have been self critical,” the 70-year-old said. “And one of my biggest regrets is not being kinder.”
He recalls a visit to Goulburn Correctional Centre where he ignored the cries of inmate complaining about a cockroach infestation.
“I should have exercised a kindness to that prisoner but I ignored him. I didn’t want to appear soft among these hard heads running the jail. It wouldn’t have taken much to stop and talk to him.”
Another situation that clearly still niggles was his dismissal of a conservation order request for the Cyprus-Hellene Club in Elizabeth St. It had little architectural merit and so Mr Carr saw no reason to protect it.
But it was more than bricks and mortar to those behind the campaign. On January 26, 1938, it had been a meeting place of 100 Aboriginal men and women protesting against their treatment by the white Australians. Many see it as the birthplace of the Aboriginal human rights movement.
Mr Carr admits his position was fixed — something he describes as a character flaw — and he ignored their campaign. “Again I would say I was unkind and lacked a bit of imagination which could have made a real difference.”
The book, to be released next Monday, tells the story of Mr Carr growing up in Matraville, before becoming a journalist and entering politics. It covers his time as NSW Premier and then Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Born in 1947 he lived the first nine years of his life at Maroubra Junction before moving to Matraville.
“We lived in Oxley St and there was no sewage. Twice a week some poor bastard would come round and take the full pan from the outdoor toilet. Then there was the smell of the tanneries and the beaches were full of sewage. But it was a fantastic place for boys on bikes to grow up. We would play on the rifle range, the bullets whizzing over our heads and see the snake man at La Perouse.”
Then there was the smell of the tanneries and the beaches were full of sewage.
“But it was a fantastic place for boys on bikes to grow up. We would play on the rifle range, the bullets whizzing over our heads and run around the Malabar open tip with all the rats. Then at the weekend we would go to La Perouse and see the snake man. It was a sensational place to grow up.”
He attended Matraville Soldiers Settlement Public School and then Matraville High School where he graduated as dux.
“My education was mediocre but there were enough sparks to get me started,” he said. “It left me hungry for self education and self learning.”
Carr still lives just a few kilometres from his childhood home and maintains a keen interest in the area.
“Overdevelopment is the main threat. My argument is that our population is too high and as a result there is this surge in the number of apartments. I think it is happening too quickly.
“Look at somewhere like Pagewood with that cluster of towers. The infrastructure isn’t there. It is going to make it harder for people at Maroubra to get on to the Eastern Distributor.”
He also fears we may have missed the chance to link up the area with a metro system. “Ideally the metro that runs to Bondi would have extended down Anzac Parade.
But it looks like we have gone down the light rail route. That was a missed opportunity.”
BOB CARR ON …
TRUMP’S DEAL WITH KIM
Maybe only a mad bad crazy figure like Trump could have committed to it.
Managing the negotiations beyond this point is a challenge as the Americans and North Korea have different definitions on denuclearisation.
But I think it is always better to pull an errant state back into the international community.
AUSTRALIA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE US
I don’t think we should be as craven as we appear to be.
We didn’t go along with him on Jerusalem or Iran. That was encouraging. We have got to get into the habit of having more arguments with Americans while maintaining that alliance.
2000 OLYMPICS
It was a wonderful celebration of the best features of Australian life and character.
The fact that it happened so efficiently without blowing the budget was an advertisement in itself for how Australia made itself a competitive country.
PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENTS IN POLITICS
Getting rid of systemic corruption in the police force.
Also crafting the best school curriculum in Australia even to this day and making huge strides on the environment on all fronts.
We also put in whopping great slabs of infrastructure.
Locally it would be consolidating the clean beaches through our stormwater program. Lifting the quality of local schools and ending incineration at Malabar.
Tomorrow the Southern Courier will be publishing a chapter from Bob Carr’s book in which he details his life growing up in Maroubra and Matraville. Log on to southerncourier.com.au to read it.
The book, Run For Your Life, is out on July 2.