Almost exactly a year ago in these pages we wrote about John Ruddick’s worthwhile efforts to draw attention to the need for reform within the NSW Liberal party. The bold and brave party reformer had written a witty but insightful spoof of an imaginary pre-selection battle within the fictitious blue ribbon seat of ‘Howard’. As we wrote:

Drawing upon a cast of characters who sound as if they’ve stepped out of a game of Cluedo (the protagonist is a Mr Cowardice, a delegate who is forced to switch his vote from Mrs Virtue to Mr Schemer thanks to the less-than-subtle persuasions of the unsavoury Mr Stand-Over), Mr Ruddick shows how the process of selecting candidates has become distorted.

Mr Ruddick has always been a passionate Liberal; readers may remember him as the conservative culture warrior known as ‘Banjo’ on the Stan Zemanek show on Sydney Radio 2UE from 1993 to 2006. His views are at odds with some within the party, but they deserve to be heard. One of his beliefs is that NSW Liberal party candidates should be selected not by the factional system but by plebiscite.

Recently, with the Liberals having failed to win several western Sydney seats that the polls had predicted they easily could, and with the Labor party having embarked upon its own attempts at internal democratisation, Mr Ruddick has again raised the issue of reform.

Alas, it appears there are those within the Liberal party who would silence such dissenters. A fortnight ago Mr Ruddick went public, along with Ross Cameron, on the ABC’s 7.30, endorsing Tony Abbott’s move to split lobbyists from party officials, but saying the ban needed to go further to include in-house lobbyists. This was taken by some as a clear reference to NSW president Chris Downy, who is also the CEO of the Australian Wagering Council, a lobby group for the online gambling industry.

A few days later NSW state director Mark Needham wrote to Mr Ruddick informing him that the NSW Liberal party had instituted suspension proceedings against him for breaching party rules that prohibit members speaking to the media about internal affairs. The suspension, which will be debated on 22 November, could see Mr Ruddick turfed out of the party for the next five years.

As Western Australian state Liberal minister Joe Francis has pointed out, this is a political tactic one might expect to find in North Korea rather than the north shore of Sydney. As Mr Ruddick takes his fight directly to the membership of the Liberal party via email, many of the ordinary branch members have rightly been galvanised by this affront to core democratic values. On page vii, Mr Ruddick himself lays out his case for reform.

In conversation with the Spectator Australia’s associate editor Rowan Dean on 8 October, John Howard was unequivocal in his condemnation of the NSW Liberal party’s proposed course of action. ‘The Liberal party must first and foremost always be, well, liberal,’ he maintained. Sound advice.

In praise of being stingy

In these vexed days of weddings, study tours, cab charges, grey areas and the like, it is entirely understandable that your average pollie sometimes gets a little hazy about what should or shouldn’t be on the public purse. Or is it?

Making money was never of the faintest interest to my father. He was always personally generous, but public money was another matter entirely. He was adamant that the public purse, the taxpayers’ money, should be safeguarded. He was really stingy with public money. It was not to be used lightly or on anything merely of personal benefit to himself. My mother’s attitude was exactly the same. When he travelled overseas he was given an allowance. If he gave an official dinner party but included personal friends, he would pay for the whole thing himself. The result was that his allowance was never fully spent. So, after he came home, he handed back to Treasury whatever was left. They were not only surprised but also unsure what pigeonhole to put it in.

Heather Henderson’s new book, A Smile for My Parents: by the Daughter of Dame Pattie and Sir Robert Menzies, is a great read. But it is not merely of historical interest. According to Ms Henderson, Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister had one very simple rule when it came to claiming expenses: ‘Be stingy with public money, and generous with your own.’

One to tattoo on the forehead of every member of the new parliament perhaps, eh Tony?