Grahame Morris: On To Bigger and Badder Things

The weekly column of Howard Government spin doctor Grahame Morris ended on a conclusive note this week, if that's not a tautology. Morris, (once pinged by Media Watch - actually, repeatedly pinged - for claiming to be far enough apart from the government to comment impassively on it for Sally Loane's Spin Doctors segment, but not sufficiently far away from it to actually stop giving it advice or, for example, to stop referring to people like Ross Cameron and Larry Anthony as `soldiers'.), farewelled readers, reporting "I have some new work commitments that will absorb my column-writing time for a while." (I must rely on Mike Seccombe here - as I haven't bought any fish and chips this week I haven't read The Australian).

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that the Howard Government has enlisted its most formidable spin doctor for the upcoming industrial relations reforms onslaught. The architect of the interest rates scare and `Who Do You Trust', expect Morris to unleash the full complement. Can a policy which, as Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane admitted to Alan Jones earlier this week, is intended to reduce Australian wages by 30% (to bring them in line with New Zealand's) spinnable?

Heck, in a country that's voted for the same weedy little twit four times in a row, anything seems to be. It's going to be an alarming ride.