John Brogden Quits Politics

Today's news that former NSW Liberal leader John Brogden has decided to quit politics altogether, following his deposal as leader and subsequent suicide attempt, came as a surprise; though in retrospect, it should not have done. Clearly, the same conservative forces that saw to Brogden's deposal would not have been happy about his initial pledge that he would hold on to his seat, much less his affirmation of interest in one day regaining the top job. These same forces are, no doubt, plotting the pre-selection of their preferred candidate as I write. Also in no doubt is the fact that the Liberal Left are now dead in the water.

Not so long ago (though currently in NSW politics, anything past two months ago seems like aeons), my partner suggested to me that John Brogden was `like a Mark Latham figure for the NSW Liberal Party' (this was at the time where Latham was seen as the party's saviour). It was an interesting comment. Like Latham, Brogden was a young, somewhat iconoclastic leader with many progressive ideas that reflected his party's original charter but clashed with the views of many influential party members. And look what happened to both men.

Perhaps Brogden was down south and caught Latham's speech at Melbourne University yesterday. Even if he didn't, he'd surely agree with Latham's assessment of the Australian political system as `fundamentally sick and broken'.

Don't get me wrong. This is a political system I actively participate in. But here we have two young, idealistic - yes, undoubtedly flawed but undoubtedly talented individuals, on the political scrapheap in the prime of their lives. It behoves all of us who participate in organised politics to do something to address the problems in the system. I hesitate to say `before it's too late'.