Fare thee well
NOW is the time to say Goodbye (Goodbye ) Now is the time to yield a sigh (yield it, yield it ) Now is the time to wend our waaayeeee Until we met again Some sunny day THANK you to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore — no relation — for the introduction to this, my last article.
Well, there you go. After 13 years and just over 600 opinion pieces, it’s time for me to say goodbye to the Geelong Advertiser, Geelong and Australia. After a delightful 42-year sojourn in this fair country, I’m returning to those green and pleasant lands of my hometown in England.
I think this is the bit where I thank those who have helped me throughout the years and assisted me in writing this column.
Without a doubt, the most outstanding contributors in terms of consistency, continuity and reliability is anyone associated with CoGG. From mayors to councillors, general managers to officers, they have been a constant source of great material. From court cases to expense claims, a gift that has kept on giving. From question marks over how a councillor can rack up a couple of thousand dollars on adult phone line charges on a council mobile to CEOs who either were or were not driving their council car before a drunken crash with their lover, a general manager of CoGG. From overseas trips without bothering to file a report to filing a report and being found out having plagiarised someone else’s copy.
The Darryn Lyons era continued the giving in unexpected and subsequently disastrous ways. I remember one mayor accusing me of being a council basher and I replied that if so, I had the easiest job in the world.
Local state and federal pollies and the parties they represent have similarly been a rich source of material.
As you know, I’m a confirmed Labor person but unfortunately my experiences writing over the last decade have left me singularly unimpressed with what are laughingly referred to as our representatives. I now consider myself still to be a lefty but one looking around for a party to represent me. I’m well aware that my opinions have on occasions been divisive and polarising. In my defence I’ve never written anything that I didn’t genuinely believe.
And that is exactly how I see the opinion pieces working. Say what you think and invite debate by creating a starting point from which others can air their thoughts and discuss the points that are important to them. And you know, over the years the feedback in Text Talk, Letters to the Editor and online comments miraculously works out at pretty much 50/50 — 50 per cent thinking I’m a complete idiot, wouldn’t know my A from my T and should be sacked immediately, 50 per cent saying ‘Spot on, and about time someone says it like it is’.
So thank you, one and all, for your patience and interest, and a special thank you to the forgotten members of the Addy team: the sub-editors. For 13 years they have corrected my mistakes, found those telling photos that illustrate with one image the story’s substance and, of course, created compelling headlines.
To the readers … well, this column has only existed because of your input, and a special thanks to Matt, who in response to an article on Jacqui Lambie two weeks ago, wrote “Well, the world has turned on its head. Peter Moore writes a column that is actually … completely spot on!” I’ll take that any day of the week — thanks, Matt.
Goodbye, arrivederci, au revoir, yasou, tot ziens, auf Wiedersehen, it’s been a pleasure.