If proof were needed, on the eve of the Melbourne Cup FitzSimons claimed the race “no longer stopped the nation”.
On cue, the stands at Flemington filled to bursting on the first Tuesday in November. Some 1.68 million Australians watched the race in 2023. In open defiance of FitzSimons’ column, 2.22 million Australians flicked to Channel 9 and cheered the field home.
There would have been howls of outrage coming from the dreary anti-racing bandwagon FitzSimons has clambered onto had he offered his trifecta in the column. But with his track record, the horse he believed would be trailing stone motherless last at the 400 would be a lock to salute at the leger. Fitz says potato. You say tomato.
When it comes to the Melbourne Cup, I think Australia:
— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) November 1, 2024
His is a view of the world seen through teal-coloured glasses. It is an exploration of Sydney’s north shore values, where progressive political expressions exist only in suburbs where real estate agents invariably invoke the “leafy green” chestnut. Planet FitzSimons is a bizarro world of sanguine moral certainty with just a whiff of classism.
If only other Australians were smart enough to listen.
It is a place where complexity doesn’t exist and nuance is an insect repellent. Beyond the reach of his column, FitzSimons’ influence extends to the end of his swimming pool, just near the BBQ, where, at his famous Australia Day shindigs, celebs and political figures gather, feast and put the world to the right, sneer at their fellow citizens and quietly bemoan Australia as an intellectual backwater. As a scribbler, FitzSimons is known variously as Australia’s “most beloved popular historian”, “acclaimed author” and from the keyboard of one erstwhile colleague, former chief sports writer at the SMH Andrew Webster, a purveyor of “self-indulgent gibber”.
Don’t be sad. Two out of three ain’t bad.
What’s a popular historian? Well, the moniker is something of a back-hander to be honest. Popular history veers into the uncertain world of historiography and populism where anecdotes and assorted apocrypha merge to replace historical method.
This became obvious when the now un-bandana-ed one gushed about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel on X two days out from Anzac Day this year.
“I am Rommel devotee. He was not a Nazi. I was invited to Afrika Korps reunion circa 2003 and those old men spoke of him with extraordinary affection. One story was from an old officer who was with Rommel when he got Hitler order to kill 30 Jews. “We never got this.” Ripped it up!”
It was an odd thing to say less than 48 hours before Australians commemorate the fallen on battlefields around the world. Rommel was directly responsible for the deaths of a lot of Australians.
But it shows FitzSimons in all his cheerful magnanimity, mingling with a few former members of the Wehrmacht, exchanging amusing war stories over a few steins of the sponsor’s product. The old officer’s story may or may not be true. The story is anecdotal and no documentary evidence was sought or provided.
I am Rommel devotee. He was not a Nazi. I was invited to Afrika Korps reunion circa 2003 and those old men spoke of him with extraordinary affection. One story was from an old officer who was with Rommel when he got Hitler order to kill 30 Jews. "We never got this." Ripped it up! https://t.co/fuOQmQHJxO
— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) April 23, 2024
Similarly, it is rare to see the good bloke defence invoked where Nazism is concerned. Rommel’s Afrika Korps were responsible for the deaths of 842 Australians but let’s not fixate on all that unpleasantness. Rommel was involved in ethnic massacres in North Africa but he was a terrific chap. Tremendous skier.
According to German historian Wolfgang Proske, Rommel forbade his soldiers from buying anything from the Jewish population of Tripoli, used Jewish slave labour and commanded Jews to clear out minefields by forcing them to walk ahead of his forces as human mine detectors. Proske also claims that Jews in Tripoli were later sent to concentration camps in Libya.
The last Rat of Tobruk, Tom Pritchard, was still alive when FitzSimons made his pro-Rommel pronouncement. Pritchard, who died, aged 102, this August, endured the horrors of war in the deserts of North Africa and in the jungles of New Guinea. As a survivor of these great cataclysms, Pritchard’s unerring message was an abhorrence of war. Peter FitzSimons makes a quid out of it.
So prolific is FitzSimons’ authorship that we might be running out of colourful yarns of good old Aussie heroism. We may need to sink a RAN ship or reconstruct the Eureka Stockade at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, just to get a book out by Christmas. Maybe the CFMEU can dole out the Southern Cross flags. Whatever needs to be done, must be done for the Christmas rush.
Retiring from his role as chair of the Australian Republican Movement in 2022, FitzSimons managed to quietly put the kybosh on the voice by advocating for it. Obviously he wasn’t the only one, but the A-listers who pushed the voice to Australians were studiously ignored by a majority of Australians for good or ill.
“I personally support the voice,” FitzSimons said. “It hasn’t been a volatile issue, it’s been a point of discussion. It’s something that, for me, it is clear – if the voice goes through it certainly would be a good sign.”
In the Australia FitzSimons embraces, the Republic of Australia has voted decisively for the voice, horse racing has assumed the same ethical status as bear baiting and rugby league is now touch footy.
Except none of those things happened. In fact, it’s almost the exact reverse. Don’t knock Fitz. He’s very handy to have around.
Jack the Insider is a highly placed, dedicated servant of the nation and columnist for The Australian.
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To be so fundamentally wrong so often is an exquisite skill. Nine Media columnist Peter FitzSimons is the reverse barometer of the nation in that whatever opinion du jour catches his fancy, the reverse will almost certainly be realised.