There are no private lives under the media spotlight

Scott Morrison continues to stand by Attorney-General Christian Porter. Picture: Getty Images

Christian Porter is the victim of his own reputation. As a young bloke at university, he was, as they say, “a bit of a lad”. He had relationships galore but, then, sexual mores on university campuses can be pretty freewheeling. This came after the period in which Porter is accused of raping a young woman.

His exploits as the chief law officer of Australia can’t be dismissed as easily as accounts of how he was acting in his late teens and early 20s. Whatever he does now will be thoroughly examined.

Our politicians lost the battle for the right to have a truly private life decades ago. Journalists will look under every rock and into every nook and cranny to find evidence of philandering. It is far easier to play home games than away ones, particularly now that every mobile phone is also a camera.

There was a time politicians were able to escape heavy scrutiny. It is downright extraordinary that prime minister Harold Holt could drown on Cheviot Beach while having a swim with his mistress and there not be one mention of her presence in any newspaper at the time. Just imagine if that happened today. This juicy scandal would be a bigger story than the actual drowning of the prime minister.

Barnaby Joyce is the best retail politician of his time. He had a knack of knowing what was concerning his constituents. He could articulate the problem and the solution. He had an easy personal manner and, as journalist Alan Ramsey once said of me, he could charm the flies off a turd.

The break-up of his marriage was played out in the national media and, while I believed at the time that the good ladies of the Country Women’s Association would find this a bridge too far, I was wrong. Tamworth and its surrounding hamlets, villages and towns stuck solidly with him.

Despite all his ups and downs he still has the odd tilt at the Nationals leadership, aided and abetted by his staunchest supporter, senator Matt Canavan. Incumbent Michael McCormack has the numbers and that counts more than anything. While Barnaby still may have the baton in the knapsack, his party is not going to go through the turmoil of a leadership change.

Burning ambition is not enough. You have to earn the trust of your colleagues before they vote for you in a ballot. Once lost, that trust is extremely difficult to regain. I have spoken to several Nationals pollies and I do not gain the impression that they are ready to return Joyce to the leadership of the party.

Anthony Albanese will lead Labor at the next federal election. Any speculation to the contrary is fanciful. He has the confidence of a substantial majority of Labor’s federal caucus. Anthony is such a decent bloke that any move against him would be rejected in a trice. It should be of some comfort that in an era where the differ­ences between the parties have been narrowing, we have two strong characters tussling it out for the big prize.

The temptation to hold an early election simply because you believe you can win one handsomely must be resisted. Bob Hawke went very early in 1984 after his March 83 victory. It was a cynical move to capitalise on the disarray in the Liberal Party caused by the constant infighting between the supporters of John Howard and those who went for Andrew Peacock. Hawke still won, but the Liberal rout he believed this early election would bring about never happened.

My bet is that Scott Morrison will go full term or very close to it. Keeping faith with the electorate is never a bad idea and Morrison knows it. Being a red-hot favourite doesn’t hurt either. So far the Prime Minister, in admirable fashion, has stuck by his embattled Attorney-General, Christian Porter. The problem for Morrison is that a permanent pall seems to hover too close to Porter and it never seems to go away.