Paul Murray Live Editorial

Today was a day for fairytales and farewells.

The fairy tale was the incredible comeback by Cameron Smith to win the British Open golf crown.

It was a remarkable come from behind performance featuring five straight birdies for a final round score of 64.

For those hackers amongst us, you’ll know just how amazing that is.

But it’s even more incredible when you put that final round performance in perspective.

Golf is known as a mental game. One bad hole can throw even the best players off their game. We’ve seen it among even the greats like Greg Norman

And Cam Smith had, not a single bad hole, but  a shocking day three which most people thought spelled the end of his chances.

Well, champions are made from different stuff than the rest of us. And this 28 year old Aussie is a true champion.

He finished four rounds of pressure golf in an amazing 20 under par - and equalled the Open scoring record.

In doing so, he becomes Australia’s first major golf winner since Jason Day in 2015 and only Australia’s fifth open winner – following in the footsteps of Norman, Baker Finch, Nagle and the legendary Peter Thomson.

Last night, another legend of golf was born. Well done Cam Smith.

Petrol Prices

We all know politics is a brutal business.

Sometimes it’s not a direct confrontation that does the damage but the poisoned chalice you hand on to one of your enemies, or your opponents.

Don’t confuse the two.

It’s an age old political maxim that the opposition sits across the chamber while your enemies sit behind you.

They both want your job and most of the skull-duggery of politics is around how to stop them from succeeding.

Occasionally though, even blind Freddy can see the writing on the wall and they know the game is up.

That’s when the outgoing player leaves a few well placed political land minds that their replacements will have to deal with.

One of those little gifts is now the problem of the Albanese government.

I’m referring to the fuel tax levy cuts.

This little announcement was made in the dying days of the Morrison government and slashed 22 cents in taxes from the price of fuel.

Lower taxes are always good even if this specifically isn’t particularly good policy. However, the sting in the tail was the six month sunset clause.

That means the Albanese government will have to decide if they whack the price of petrol back up (as they promised to) or they take another billion dollar hit to the national budget bottom line.

Independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le is the first politician to call for an extension of the fuel freeze, saying that Australians can’t afford a 10% jump in the petrol price.

I agree we can’t afford it.

Those of us with Diesel vehicles are still paying around $2.40 a litre while unleaded was around $1.60 in metropolitan Adelaide today.

In regional communities, it’s still around the $2 mark.

Fuel prices flow through to every part of the economy. They impact everything we buy, through higher transport costs, and are a major factor in how stretched household budgets become before they eventually break.

And that’s the choice the Albanese team will have to make.

Are they willing to break your budget by whacking the excise up again or are they going to take a hit on making our national accounts even worse?

Who said being in government was easy?

China on Marles

One person who’s learning that the hard way is Defence Minister Richard Marles.

Before the election, Marles was fingered as handing the CCP his speeches prior to publication. Some would suggest this was seeking approval from the communist tyrants.

Whatever it was, it can certainly be considered an unwise political move.

In any event, the path of appeasing bullies is always fraught with danger. When you don’t do exactly what they want they’re apt to turn on you.

That’s what happened to Marles today.

The CCP media mouthpiece, The Global Times is now claiming Marles ‘did not only degrade himself, but actually belittled the whole of Australia’ during his recent trip to Washington.

In this respect, according to the Communists,  he was becoming indistinguishable from his ‘extremely anti-China’ predecessor Peter Dutton.

The even accused him of not being rational toward hina.

“In less than two months, Marles has rushed to reverse the outside worlds impression of him as being rational toward China’.

What a load of old communist cobblers that is.

China is a belligerent, inconsistent and deceitful player on the world stage.  

They hate any one calling out their appalling human rights record, their military posturing, their brown bag belt and road diplomacy and the terrible lies they peddle again and again.

According to the CCP, you are only rational toward China when you do what they want.

That means not calling out their Wuhan lab experiments that enslaved the world. It means remaining silent while illegal trade sanctions are applied. It means not preparing Australia militarily to defend itself from this aggressive expansionist power.

Remember, how China said they wouldn’t be militarising the South China Sea? What about our free trade agreement with them? What about their denial of surveillance and unprovoked engagement with our military while in international waters?

China are not our friends. They want to be our enslavers.

We can never afford to give in to their bullying and if Marles is earning the ire of the communists then he must be doing something right.

COVID

Who wants to move on from the pandemic?

I do and I reckon most Aussies want to too. But not our politicians it seems who are still hiding behind the panic of the Chief Health Officers.

The PM told Adelaide radio that seven-day COVID iso would remain with one premier suggesting it could continue for up to two years.

Isn’t it about time we got a grip here.

NSW premier, Dominic Perrotet, he’s the one that said iso could go for another two years, also said the current strain of the flu is worse than the current strain of COVID.

Having had both recently, I agree with him.

But there’s no mandatory flu iso. No compulsory reporting. No relief payments for when you can’t go to work.

This is utter madness, not the lack of the aforementioned, but the fact that we keep going with this stuff.

It seems nothing about this is now rational. Let me give you an example.

Today I went to the dentist for a regular checkup. I was told I had to be masked up while in the waiting room, even though I was the only one there.

It seemed lost on them that I’d be spending the next 45 minutes or so, maskless while someone was doing my routine dental hygiene treatment.

I guess the COVID knew the surgery was off limits.

I get it, as a private business they can set whatever rules they want but nothing about this is one seems rational to me.

And to those sheeple who say we ‘must follow the science’, I am afraid you’ll have to be more specific.

Do you want to follow the science of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Estonia who have ditched iso or the science of the United States which only recommends a five day self-quarantine?

You could also follow the science of Dr Nick Coatsworth who said government flunkies calling for mask mandates need to ’move on’.

They sure do.

Back in 2019, Australia was in the grip of a major influenza outbreak. In my home state,  82 people died and here’s what South Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Nicola Spurrier said at the time.

"It's very unfortunate to see this number of people that have died, however the influenza virus this year is not considered to be any more deadly than the viruses in the past."

"What it is important to do is remember elderly people and the very young are vulnerable.

If you start to get a cold or feel a little bit unwell or think maybe you're getting the flu, then it's very important that you don't go and visit elderly relatives and friends."

She further warned:

“if they did contract the virus, to stop its spread by washing hands and coughing into a tissue or elbow.”

Sound like reasonable advice to me, so why aren’t we doing the same with COVID?

After all, the science according to NSW Premier Perrotet is that the current flu strain is worse than Omicron.

Roche Funeral

I started the show tonight by saying it was a day for fairy tales and farewells.

Today ,a packed St Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Rose Bay,  and hundreds of others watching a live stream, bade farewell to one of nature’s gentlemen.

William Roche AM, know to everyone as 'Bill' passed away on 30 June at the grand age of 87.

His life was filled with extraordinary achievements including incredible business success. But Bill's greatest legacy was the legion of friends and family he left behind.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Imelda, their four children and thirteen grandchildren.

He was a wonderful  friend to many, including to me and my family.

It was one of my great honours to host Bill and Imelda at my final speech to the parliament in 2019.

They were an inspirational couple and with Bill’s passing, while the physical presence of this dynamic duo has halved, that inspiration is not lost.

It lives on through the impact Bill made on so many lives. It’s perhaps neatly summed up in the funeral notice where it was simply stated “Dad you were aa legend”

Vale Bill Roche and condolences to Imelda and the Roche family.