On February 14, 1978, The Bulletin magazine published a cover story by its rising journalistic star Malcolm “Cheech” Turnbull under the headline: “How Wran was outflanked on Upper House reform”.
The article began with an eye-catching flourish:
Neville Wran strove manfully to put a brave face on his compromise with the Opposition over reform of the NSW Legislative Council. But the compromise, which will see both parties supporting direct election for the previously undemocratic Upper House, constitutes not only Wran’s first major political setback but holds the possibility of his losing the next election.
Oh dear, big call. Now let’s roll forward nine months to the state election in October 1978.
History records that Wran did not lose; on the contrary, Labor polled a thumping 60 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, swamped the parliament with new entrants and reduced the Opposition to a virtual rump.
The blockbuster campaign was organised around the slogan “Wran’s our man”. The victory enthroned Wran in Labor’s iconography and the expression “Wranslide” passed into the bibliography of Australian political history.
He led a second “Wranslide” in 1981, although there is no record of political predictions by Turnbull who, by then, was carving out a legal career.
There is no explanation for his wildly erroneous call in The Bulletin in 1978. Perhaps he’d had a bong too many and it influenced his judgment that day.
I was a student at UNSW in 1977, and as I remember, Nifty Neville delivered a spray where he was in favour of upper house deregulation ( or perhaps getting rid of the upper house) I do remember him mentioning particularly egregious examples of party hacks turned seatwarmers. The time came for a vote of us AUS (that’s Australian Union of Students) members . Tremendous roar of support. Then, the president of the Liberal students association(wearing a suit rather than the T and indian shirts everyone else was wearing) said the vote wasn’t valid as it has to be counted. Bedlam and good times followed. Those were the days…..
I think most of us would be embarrassed if someone resurrected the predictions we made 30 years ago.
NOTE TO ALL COMMENTATORS:
It’s clear that Little Jimmy K thrives on the limelight……any limelight………even that afforded to a witless, right wing, racist bigot such as he.
The best way to eliminate Tiny Jimmy’s facile commentary, or at least reduce it, is not to mention his name at all, or respond to his silly arguments.
Hopefully this tactic will rid us all, both left & right wing commentators, of his increasingly tiresome, low rent ramblings.
PS: I get the impression that Mini Jimmy sees himself as a big-time ‘ player’ ……….yes… really!!!!! You know the type……the one who thought that by bombarding political science tutes with his silly views, he would be seen as a stand-out student
come on
get a life
As Granpa Simpson said in season1, episode 7 of The Simpsons:
“Dear Advertisers, I am disgusted with the way old people are depicted on television. We are not all vibrant, fun loving sex maniacs. Many of us are bitter, resentful individuals who remember the good old days when entertainment was bland and inoffensive. The following is a list of words I never want to hear on television again. Number one: bra. Number two: horny. Number three: family jewels.”
What has this to do with the price of potatoes?
Exactly ….you just got MATLOCK’D by Alex Mitchell