A Matter of Opinion

‘There is no one now, and no one coming along, who can write like this.’ - David Marr

‘A lion of a journalist in every way.’ - Michelle Grattan

‘For years his column has been an essential, often enjoyable, frequently uncomfortable, part of my Saturday morning regime.’ - Kevin Rudd

‘Grumpy old bastard. Seriously unique.’ - Bill Heffernan

For more than two decades no one had greater access to our national parliament and its politicians than Alan Ramsey. Informed, insightful and unafraid, his columns in The Sydney Morning Herald were essential reading for many thousands of Australians.

Here are 150 of his unflinching views of key political events of that era, among them: the often turbulent Hawke/Keating years, the 1990 recession ‘we had to have’, Labor’s stunning dumping of Bob Hawke in December 1991, the Howard Government’s slavish subservience to the Bush White House, the insidious channelling of Hansonism, John Howard’s ‘never ever’ GST, the invasion of Iraq, the disintegration of the Democrats, the manipulation by both sides of politics of the 2001 children overboard incident, and the scandal of the Governor-General who ultimately resigned.

Yet Ramsey’s keen eye often observed with affection the values and behaviour of others in national life, and he was as ready to give credit as he was to lay into the humbug, pomposity and deceit of political, personal and sectional self-interest.