Tim Smith, the former opposition attorney-general and extremely thorough fence-strength tester, is inching towards the end of his time in Victorian Parliament — and he is not going quietly.
He’s leapt upon the culture war fodder provided by moves toward an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, he’s simped hard for the new monarch, and is using the final weeks where newspapers feel obliged to report on his Twitter outbursts to go after those in the media who he feels have done him wrong — cop a load of this fury (penned late at night and since deleted) directed at 3AW host Neil Mitchell:
Neil Mitchell is the most awful, duplicitous, hateful individual I think I’ve ever met, I did everything he ever wanted, I gave him an exclusive interview when I disgraced myself and he hounded me, like a rabid dog, for weeks thereafter. I hate him.
Apart from anything else, it’s a little insight into what happens when the assumed chumminess between politics and media doesn’t work out how one party expected (“I did everything he ever wanted… “). He also perhaps unintentionally hints at his true public services: his endless commitment to content generation.
And sure, Smith will probably get a show on Sky after dark and keep saying and doing these things. Maybe he can be on a panel with Matthew Guy and we’ll get a Vic Lib equivalent of Mark Latham and Graham Richardson screaming “king rat!” at each other? But will it be as fun as Smith trying to get voters mad at Victorian Premier Dan Andrews because of rain?
Could it match his ability to conclusively lose a Facebook poll he’d attempted to rig? Could anything he does after politics beat the sheer magnificence of Smith using his electorate letterhead to swear “by almighty God that I, and the people of Kew, will be faithful and bear true allegiance to you, our Sovereign, Charles the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Australia”?
No chance.
