What Are They Hiding?

I just sat through the Prime Minister's first press conference of 2024.

It's 20 minutes of my life that I'll never get back, and it added nothing to my knowledge base.

The presser was filled with banalities and political promises, replete with blaming his predecessors for errors.

One of those mistakes was a bureaucratic bungle of not transferring cabinet documents relating to the Iraq war to the national archives three years ago.

That's the usual process in preparation for their public release after 20 years of state-sanctioned confidentiality.

It seems all the other cabinet papers made their way during the normal process, but bizarrely, those detailing the advice and justification for committing Aussie troops to another of America's endless conflicts were left behind.

One cannot say for sure if this was a deliberate decision or an error. Between cock-up and conspiracy, I used to choose cock-up, but with so many conspiracies being proved correct, one's dubiousness is justified.

Two decades ago, I fully supported the war in Iraq.

Part of that was naïveté about how the world really worked, but there was also a healthy wish to share democracy and freedom with those who don't have it.

After 14 years in politics, I am much wiser on both accounts.

The democracy and freedom we claim to covet is an illusion.