It was fabulous to see Peter Reith emerge yesterday from whatever dark cupboard he’s been hiding in since 2001 to come out and call for a new IR reform agenda.

Clearly unused to being back in the spotlight (albeit only as background to John Howard’s book launch) Reith called for the Coalition to “continue to embrace reform”. Is he still in denial about the role of WorkChoices in the fall of the Howard government in 2007? And if so, given this is such a sensitive topic in the Coalition ranks, wouldn’t it be better to keep his trap shut?

Actually, it was wonderful to see the old team back together again — Reith, Alexander Downer, John Sharp, Michael Photios and Wilson Tuckey — because it enabled the assembled hacks to reminisce about how they had all come to grief. Reith, of course, suffered a mortal blow over a $50,000 bill on a phone card in 2000 and retired the following year. Sharp, the former minister for transport and regional development, resigned from the ministry in 1997 over the Travel Rorts Affair, involving incorrect travel claims.

Lord Downer’s fleeting leadership of the Coalition was ended after he joked that the party’s domestic violence policy would be called “the things that batter”. Ironbar, of course, lost his seat and has become a blogger, and Photios resigned after he was outed having an affair while his then-wife was pregnant with their second child. Sir Robert Menzies would have been proud.

Actually, I spotted Downer reading the index of Howard’s book, Lazarus Rising, while standing in line to have it signed, but he furiously denied he was looking himself up in the index. He said he had seen the references to himself because John had already run it past him in draft form for historical accuracy. When asked, he said that apart from acting as the UN Envoy in Cyprus he was working in a consultancy in Adelaide called Bespoke Approach, in partnership with Nick Bolkus.

According to the Bespoke Approach website: “Politics, like business, is the art of the possible: transition brings opportunity and opportunity always presents challenges. To explore the boundaries of what is possible and to gain advantage in any given situation requires measured advice from trusted counsel with wisdom gained from a global view. That is the Bespoke Approach.” So people would pay money to Lord Downer and NICK BOLKUS to “gain an advantage in any given situation”. What is the world coming to?

The most cheerful person here, apart from the royalty-counting author, was Andrew Peacock, who told me he was now based in his wife’s home state of Texas. In his speech, Howard praised Peacock’s great contribution as the ambassador in Washington, triggering the memory of that great photo of a slumbering Shirley Maclaine in the audience of Howard’s foreign policy address in New York in 1997.

Other pollies in attendance included Pru Goward, Peter Collins, Barry O’Farrell and Michael Yabsley, together with a healthy-looking John Fahey. A few business leaders were also there, including Paul Ramsay and Peter Ivany as well as Graham Morris, Tom Hughes QC and Kerry Jones.

Harper Collins publisher Shona Martyn said they had originally printed 50,000 copies and have subsequently ordered another 10,000. Howard had been very good to deal with, she said, adding he had negotiated the contract himself, without an agent, and had written every word. “He is a natural story teller, also he has a good memory and also kept good diaries and notes,” she said, confirming that the advance was “north of $400,000”.

The former PM was also behaving like he was back on the campaign trail, she said, telling her that if the publisher put up a table outside a shop in regional Australia he would go there and sign books.

Howard gave a good speech, including a criticism of the narrow life experiences of many of today’s politicians. In the past, “…there were more people in political parties, particularly the ALP, who had real-life experience outside politics. Clyde Cameron and Mick Young actually sheared sheep and there were fewer people whose only life experience was only related to politics”.

He also said that oppositions had a duty to support some aspects of government policy: “When we were in opposition, we supported many of the Labor reforms of the Hawke-Keating governments. By contrast, when we were in government we received no support at all from the Labor party in relation to any of the difficult economic reforms we implemented.

“It is important to remember, and this is as relevant today as it was in those years … that political parties have responsibilities in opposition as well as having responsibilities in government.”

Just as I was leaving, I ran into Kamahl, who evidently goes to many Liberal Party functions to sing the national anthem, although probably not one of his greatest hits, Time to Say Goodbye. Although disappointingly dressed in a suit, and not his usual caftan, Kamahl looks amazing well for 76, and regaled me with stories about his friendship with Sir Donald Bradman.

So many cheerful, smiling, energetic septuagenarians in the one place! There’s hope for us all.