John Brogden missed the point totally
yesterday. His error of judgement was not so much the slurs and the
frat-boy behaviour, but the cover up. The greatest offence is in the
ethics of his denial, and the sneaky hope over nearly a month for a
whitewash.

Brogden either lied to his staff, who were denying
the story when it was first raised earlier this month, or they were
lying for Brogden. Interestingly, both Brogden’s chief of staff Peter
Frazer and media advisor Steve Murphy were advisers to Jeff Kennett,
where they considered obfuscating to journalists an occupational hazard.

The headline in today’s story by the SMH’sDamien Murphy sums up the whole of ‘The Group’ quite nicely: “A thirst for power but ill-equipped to bounce back from stupidity.”

Murphy’s
image of the former leader as a lemon-wedged-Corona-drinking queue
jumper is a lovely portrait of a private school boy who never had to
grow up. Brogden even managed to fumble his exit. As Michael Gordon
points out in today’s Age: “What was most unconvincing was that
Brogden offered no explanation for his comments about the wife of
former Premier Bob Carr.”

As it panned out, Brogden did what he
did and said what he said because he was outed and had no other choice.
His contrition seemed as much for his own loss as for any heartfelt
atonement for his actions. Had he done a mea culpa as soon as the
rumour hit the streets he might well have survived it as a youthful
indiscretion. But he didn’t, so we’ll never know.