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As for Mr Debnam's claim that he and Premier Bob Carr had been establishing a secret police state, Mr Watkins was equally dismissive. We don't have a secret police state, he said, we have a smart one. That is why Mr Debnam doesn't fit. As I have said if he doesn't like my answers, he should ask better questions.
(Sun Herald by John Kidman 11 April 2004 p 30)

Smart Sausage Making on All Sides
This is the United States in the 21st century where the power brokers have gone mad. They've deluded themselves into thinking they're royalty, not public servants charged with protecting the rights and interests of the people. Both recordings were erased. Only then was the reporters' property returned. When agents acting on behalf of a Supreme Court justice can just snatch and destroy information collected by reporters, we haven't just thumbed our nose at the Constitution, we've taken a very dangerous step in a very ugly direction.
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Tree of Truth: 'Why can't we show a tree telling lies?'
BULLDOZERS will move into The Domain this week to chop down all but one of the park's 150-year-old Moreton Bay figs.
"The Tree of Truth" will be spared due to its additional historical value.
In this case one individual tree has extra individual historic significance, it's been used as a tree for interviews for many years.
The state's politicians have been holding press conferences under the tree, directly behind Parliament House, for decades.
The tree gives them a friendlier outdoor backdrop for the evening TV news, with the convenience of being just outside their offices.
The most common phrase in the NSW parliament press gallery is: The minister, out the back under the tree, in five minutes.
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