Your story about Larry Anthony losing the Univeristy of NSW student president election to an engineer offering free beer is spot on. I think it was 1985 and I was in Larry’s quantitative methods class. Larry was running on a Broad Right platform in response to the Red Sox collective and its Broad Left agenda. The engineering guy came from out of the blue. It was a lesson for Larry – it taught him that self-interest really is the most powerful force in the world.

CRIKEY: Still at university in 1985! That must make Larry one of the younger recipients of a parliamentary pension as he also dips into the directors’ fees trough at childcare behemoth ABC Learning. While everyone else is waiting until they turn 55, Larry is now enjoying a tasty pension of about $70,000 a year at the age of 43 after serving eight years in the Federal Parliament before losing his seat of Richmond at last year’s poll.