Friday, June 04, 2021

Team Player’s Trolley of Truth and Gutter Politics: There was no one better at dealing with the press gallery than Walt


Analysis: Jodi McKay might appear to have resigned from the NSW Labor leadership of her own volition, but there can be no doubt her departure was accelerated by a sinister and disgracefully calibrated effort to ensure her position remained untenable.


Some people at work places and political arenas show evil as a great racehorse shows breeding. They have the dignity of a hard chancre. However, in the long term there is very small choice in rotten apples 🍎 


The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.


Psychopaths at work and at the legislatures seem to thrive these days.


No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye and it nails any dreams and hopes.



It has beeen said that the love of money and power is the root of all evil.


"Over the last two years, it is well-known that Jodi McKay and I have disagreed on key policy, parliamentary and strategic decisions and directions," Mr Secord said in a statement.

"But despite those differences, I have served and done my best to hold the government to account. I have been a team player". Team Player who replaced Obeid


The 51-year-old, who has been opposition leader since mid-2019, on Friday said she was quitting to unite the party despite retaining the support of the majority of her parliamentary colleagues.

"If a ballot was held today I can tell you I would win," she told reporters.

"But it is clear that although I was elected in a democratic ballot there are those within our party that have never accepted the outcome of that process.

"There has to be a future where there is no destabilising of the party's leader from within."

A supporter of Ms McKay said the leader had endured constant backgrounding and white-anting.

"The question is now whether you give in to the bullies," they said.

Ms McKay's likely replacement, Chris Minns, has not yet announced his intention to run but thanked the former leader for putting Labor first.

"I intend to continue talking to my colleagues in the Labor caucus, Party and movement about how we unify and win the confidence of the people of NSW," he said in a statement posted to Twitter.

'Destabilised' McKay quits as Labor leader


The NSW corruption watchdog has flagged that its current inquiry into Labor Party donations "does not include" an investigation into whether state Labor MP Chris Minns was involved in an alleged scheme to disguise the source of donations to his 2015 election campaign.

A long-running Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into Labor Party donations has heard allegations that former Labor MP Ernest Wong and Labor figure Jonathan Yee were involved in a scheme to conceal the source of at least $10,000 in donations to Mr Minns' campaign for the seat of Kogarah in 2015.

ICAC inquiry not targeting Labor MP Chris Minns, watchdog says


Walt Secord Warrior who served many chiefs


Replaced Eddie Obeid to support same culture


Who is Chris Minns? NSW Labor’s new leader wants to be the next Keating



Simmering tensions between rival NSW Labor leadership factions boiled over on Tuesday morning after an internal dirt file on a potential leader was distributed to the media.

The leaking of the document, titled “Why Chris Minns and Jamie Clements Can Never Run The NSW Labor Party”, has deepened divisions within the party amid a leadership tussle.


Chris Minns Dossier -


Inside story: Jodi McKay tendered her resignation the day after the NSW Upper Hunter byelection but retracted when it became clear Labor officials had only one replacement in mind.

How a Labor cabal conspired to drag down NSW leader Jodi McKay


Vaclav Havel loved quotes along these lines: 

I can say with conviction that the struggle which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women. It lets us into the soul of things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcomings of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail."


A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.




I object to violence and bullying because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.


The brown snake stood up for evil in the Garden. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.


Sadly, egos who’d rather trash good leadership than not be in power do not care what gets broken along the way”


Big Red Riding Hood 

Yesterday we reported on Walt Secord, Bob Carr's larger-than-life chief spin doctor and his stolen "Trolley of Truth" (as those up on Macquarie Street lovingly refer to it). Secord had become a familiar sight around Parliament House, loading his trolley with press releases and dispensing them to the hungry media pack.



And Secord? Once a spinner maybe always a spinner, in which case he might be sprucing up his notorious truth trolley to wheel into Canberra's press gallery. But he's also probably memorised every word uttered by tobacco flack Nick Naylor in last year's movie Thank You For Smoking, including the memorable comment: if you want an easy job, go and work for the Red Cross.

And remember sexy Nick's dinner with sultry investigative journalist Heather Hallows, approximately as damaging as John Della Bosca's lunch with Maxine McKew? Heather: Nick, why do you do this? What motivates you? Nick: You really want to know? Population control. Heather: You're bad! Nick: Everyone's got a mortgage to pay. Voiceover: The yuppie Nuremberg defence.

Labor needs that kind of editorial intelligence on its scriptwriting team for election 2007, and beyond.