Politics used to be a civil business. But no more

. I remember when a conservative like Sir Robert Menzies could be on very cordial terms with a lefty like Jim Cairns – and grief-stricken by the death of Ben Chifley.

Once upon a time in Australian politics, friendships transcended parties. I remember when a conservative like Sir Robert Menzies could be on very cordial terms with a lefty like Jim Cairns – and grief-stricken by the death of Ben Chifley.

I remember a time when lefties like me could like truly liberal Liberals like Alan Missen, Margaret Guilfoyle and Fred Chaney – and eccentrics like Jim Killen. On some issues we could make common cause. I also remember a time when there were love affairs across party lines, most delightfully a Montague-Capulet romance in the Senate. Equally I recall detesting some on my side of politics – for instance, Mark Latham and the Senator McClelland who wasn’t Jim.

Alan Missen.

I was particularly friendly with the liberal Liberal Philip Ruddock. I admired him for the way he would cross the floor on a point of principle, and for setting up a parliamentary branch of that admirable organisation Amnesty International. He proudly wore its badge – its ideals symbolised by a burning candle shining through barbed wire – on his lapel. Imagine my disappointment when, as a minister in the Howard government, he started putting refugees behind barbed wire. And blowing out the candle. When Amnesty demanded he remove the badge, Phil refused. Perhaps he’s still wearing it today.

Philip Ruddock. Picture: AAP

Ruddock was a voice from an era when JWH purged the party of so-called “wets”. It was his way or the highway. Now the Libs are drier than the Millennial Drought.

In earlier days I’d worked with one of the wets, Liberal Don Chipp, fighting against Australia’s censorship of literature and cinema. When Don couldn’t rally the Libs behind him he formed the Australian Democrats – and I happily campaigned for him. For a while the Dems kept their promise to “keep the bastards honest”. A precursor to the Teals?

The Howard purges inflicted mortal damage on his party – and still do. I could list a score of notables in Liberal history who would never get preselection now. The party has moved so far to the right that Menzies must be rolling in his proverbial grave. The Liberal Party? The name is false advertising; the Libs are, all too often, echoes of Trump’s Republicans.

And the ALP? On Albo’s front bench we see many who would have Gough, too, spinning in his grave.

Whitlam’s principles have been dismissed, just as his government was by Kerr. Can you imagine him signing up for the AUKUS nuclear powered subs deal? Or such vacillations on Gaza? Everybody’s favourite Marxists – Harpo, Chico and most notably Groucho – come to mind. What was Groucho’s great one-liner? “If you don’t like my principles, I have others.”

These days, there’s little left of the Left. Having resigned from the ALP over the coup against Kevin Rudd, I’ve never seen sufficient reason to re-join. All of which feeds into the general cynicism that young people today feel for politics. And that’s before you factor in the lunatic fringe. As seen in the destruction of the Voice and the criminal inaction on the climate crisis.

Honestly, I’m rolling in my grave.