Last
night a senior NSW Liberal source was briefing me on the leadership
ballot planned for this morning. This person was optimistic. The news
from the backrooms suggested that the factions were talking properly
and engaging in some serious horse-trading for the first time in 10
years. The source spoke about the spirit of compromise. It looked as if
a unity ticket was emerging, if Peter Debnam could be elected, with
Jillian Skinner as his deputy.

The vote is now off. Barry
O’Farrell appeared on 2GB with Alan Jones this morning and withdrew.
The 29 members of the NSW Parliamentary Liberal Party will now meet on
Friday.

Around the time we were speaking, ambulance services
were removing former opposition leader John Brogden from his electorate
office after he had harmed himself – as The SMH reports here.

We
saw the death of Victorian MHR Greg Wilton in 2000. A happier story has
been that of Tasmanian Labor Senator Nick Sherry, who has bounced back
from his own personal pain. When Wilton died, Sherry talked about his
own experience on Lateline:

It’s like a great black hole, he said. You don’t see any way out.

The world that you’ve lived and constructed for yourself seems to have come to an end, whether it’s relationships or your work.

You see no way out.

In
my case, despite what I’d consider some exaggerated criticisms at the
time, some legitimate criticisms, I felt a great disappointment in
myself and that world that I had which was very important to me and too
important in terms of work and I think bordering on obsessive, that
world was coming to an end.

I just didn’t consider it worthwhile living anymore.

The Brogden self-harm episode seems to have been provoked by a page-one splash in today’s first edition of the Daily Telegraph. “BROGDEN’S SORDID PAST,” the headline screamed. “Disgraced Liberal leader damned by secret shame file,” went the sub-head.

“John
Brogden was forced to quit the NSW Liberal leadership because a raft of
fresh allegations of sexual misconduct was set to destroy his career,”
the story opened. “They include propositioning women for group sex and
harassing Opposition staff at State Parliament,” it continues, spilling
onto pages four and five where it was joined by an item headed “Private
outrage of a wife in pain,” quoting friends of the Brogdens.

As news of Brogden’s condition broke, Telegraph
editor David Penberthy was called back into Holt Street to remake the
paper. The later editions look very different and now the SMH is asking, “Is the media to blame?”

A
detailed story about Brogden’s personal life circulated several years
ago. That was ignored by media and his political rivals at the time.
However, the former opposition leader now appears to have been the
victim of a planned and deliberate media campaign by his political
opponents to undermine him. Two lobbyists have been linked to the
whisperings, and there is talk of intriguing Canberra connections.
Liberal sources claim that Brogden’s political opponents made sure they
collected the full and detailed case against him before making it
public.

“It is pretty obvious that everybody in politics has people out to get them,” Brogden said at his resignation press conference on Monday.

“[Young
Liberal Federal President] Alex Hawke has been named as pushing it,”
Brodgen said on Monday, talking about the episode that lead to his
stepping down. “He needs to take a long hard look at himself.”

“Barry
O’Farrell needs to take a look at himself,” an influential Liberal told
me this morning. Serious and salacious allegations concerning other
parliamentarians are flying this morning – but no doubt the more sober
NSW Liberals are doing just that.