It wrecked his political career, all over a pointless exercise in pretending to be “horrified” and “prostrate with grief” about something over which he had no control and over which he would never have any control.

Latham, at the time, had other, real things to be prostrate over, yet no quarter was given to him by the press.

OK, so you can say there was a hidden agenda to get rid of Latham by hook or by crook. But Howard’s legitimising of this kind of running public heart-on-his-sleeve act made any hatchet job on Latham all the more possible.

Rudd should not fall for this, or else it will get him in the end too.

Rudd should steer away from this or else he’ll be being asked fatuous questions about stray dogs biting pedestrians, cricket controversies, third umpire decisions, trains running on time, driving hoons and potholes in Blacktown streets.

The country should be able to get on well without this kind of trivia eminating from the PM’s mouth. The Federal government does NOT run the country down to the smallest nut and bolt. Permitting local minutae to be put under the Rudd-O-Scope will come back to bite him and his government, as the delving into trivial detail by journalists for comment by the PM becomes more and more irrelevant to national affairs.

I personally don’t give a toss about the Harbour tragedy. I care about the young next door neighbour of mine who was killed instantly at a local black-spot intersection because I knew her well. I didn’t know any of the victims of the Harbour incident. Therefore, hard nosed as this may sound, their fates are of little import to my life.

People die in tragic circumstances every day. I am unlikely to ever be on the Harbour at night with fourteen other people overloading a glorified tinny without navigation lights (as alleged). I don’t like to see, “Sandy was so full of life” headlines as I did yesterday in the Telegraph. Sandy who? Someone called “Sandy” was killed in the accident. The Telegraph treats her as if she was Australia’s Sweetheart, overly personalising the whole situation.

It was the same as the woman who took bribes from developers at Woollongong Council. She had a first name too (which, thankfully, escapes me) and – in terms of this first name – was turned into some kind of heroine because she was swindled into having sex with a millionaire who wanted to get his development up and running under allegedly corrupt circumstances.

Every moment spent commenting on local storms in local teacups by the leader of the country diminishes him. It’s simply a matter of professionalism on Rudd’s part and, in my opinion, it was and will be a mistake for Rudd to fall for this Daily Telegraph approach to minor affairs, “tragic” as they may be in the local news environment.

Think Rudd/Wong/Garret have much more thinking to do and hard decisions to make. The national party will howl the roof down if irrigated dairies are told to shut up shop. Compensation I guess will have to be paid? I always thought $10Bn over 10 years was petty cash. $100Bn this year be more in line with reality.

Akermann is discussing the Stolen Generation. Don’t go there, the half caste kids were happy to go, to leave their family where they were mistreated because they were half white. What a retard.

Can someone please tell him he is NOT the “Father Of The Nation”, and does not need to punctuate our daily lives with homilies on how our wonderful harbour can bring forth tragedy as well as joy etc. etc.

Next thing he’ll be answering quetion on disputed State of Origin tries.

No more, please!

(Faint hope of that, I think).

WA LIBERAL Party whip Graham Jacobs will call for a leadership spill tomorrow after Opposition Leader Troy Buswell's chair sniffing incident, a senior liberal MP says.

Party whip Graham Jacobs will call for the spill tomorrow morning during a press conference outside Perth's parliament house, says opposition treasury spokesman Steve Thomas.

If Dr Jacobs has the numbers to support his move the spill motion will be put to a party room meeting next week, Dr Thomas said.

Mr Buswell has been under intense pressure after admitting to sniffing the chair of a woman Liberal staffer in a Parliament House office in October 2005.

The staffer at the centre of the sniffing incident, who has asked not be named, said Mr Buswell, then deputy to former Liberals leader Matt Birney, lifted the chair and sniffed it in front of her and other people "to get a laugh".

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23625563-5005361,00.html