I try to remain apolitical.
It’s easy when lots of your life has been on the periphery of the political scene in Canberra with most of your contact with aspirants and incumbents on the social side of your work.
I can be friendly with all, and not being part of the machinations behind the scenes and have happily come to know quite a few over the years.
And yes I find most of the contact these days is due to my work at the National Press Club. So I happily stay oblivious to the finer points of being a politician but don’t envy them the commitment they make to a job none of us would want.
The Greens, with Richard Di Natale at the helm, were back to kick off their election campaign this past week with most of his team enthusiastically clapping their leader and I chatted, as I do, with most.
Senator Larissa Waters is a mum I love to catch up with chatting about her baby girl who will find out in the future she was the first little bub to be breast-fed in the Senate and attend Parliament House’s Mid-Winter Ball in her baby finery.
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson and I chat about his uncle Lloyd Whish-Wilson who was once one of my bosses in a former job and I laugh with Senator Janet Rice as I expect her to bring out her knitting every time I see her after a comment from Minister Peter Dutton about ‘sticking to their knitting’.
It’s the throwaway lines that make so much of politics a bit of a laugh.
And you can bet Opposition Leaders Bill Shorten’s ‘space invader’ title will haunt current PM Scott Morrison for evermore.
