THE HON. KIM BEAZLEY, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

In which we meet an old friend and struggle to master our excitement

Thanks very much for your time.

Very good to be here. Good evening.

You are…Mr?

Kim Beazley.

Kim Beazley. That’s right. How are you? I haven’t seen you for a bit

No. I’m very well thanks. How are you?

I’m good thanks. Now you’re doing the job of…

I’m the leader of the opposition.

Yes. Mark Latham’s old job.

Yes. Mark’s no longer with the firm.

Where is Mark now?

Mark’s working from home.

Who was in Mark Latham’s old job before Mark Latham?

The way we look at it, it’s not Mark Latham’s old job. It’s my job.

Yes, but who was in the job before Mark Latham?

Simon Crean was.

And before that?

I was, before that.

And before that?

Before me?

Yes.

Me again. But look, you seem to be concentrating on the past. We’re a party of the future. We have a forward-looking view…aren’t you going to interrupt me?

No, I was going to see what you had to say.

I haven’t got anything to say. I was just making the point that we’re the party of the first part

(Helping.) Of the future.

Of the future.

My point is that you go back a fair way You were the last leader but two and the last but three.

That’s right.

When were the Crusades?

The Crusades were before that. My position is similar to that of John Howard. He had about six goes at being leader before he won an election.

And why was that?

The Liberal Party was shell-shocked. They’d been humiliated in a few elections on the trot. They didn’t know what they were…Didn’t know how best to get the man obviously best suited to manage the country, into the driver’s seat.

You nearly won the federal election in 1998, didn’t you?

I did. I came within a…

A win.

I came within a win of winning that one.

And you came within a win of winning again in 2001.

I did. The only thing that preventing us from winning that one was the…

The fact that you had the same policies as the government?

Not so much that but that they had them first.

So you had some bad ideas?

We had plenty of bad ideas.

But you didn’t have them first.

That’s right, and that told against us.

Did you toy with the prospect of having any good ideas, at any stage?

Yes, I’m pretty sure we looked at that.

Wouldn’t work?

I think someone suggested that. Perhaps some of the women.

You don’t think it would work?

It wasn’t up to me. I was only the leader of the party.

So who runs the party if not the leader?

I’ve got that here. (He takes a card from his pocket and reads.) A bloke called. Who’s this? I didn’t know there was a Rupert Packer.

That’s two cards.

I see. (Off.) Harry, what’s the name of the bloke who ultimately sets ALP policy at the moment. That’s it. John Howard.

Thanks for coming in.