Hands off Prince Harry!

It's not often that a story in the media makes me angry these days. Having worked at the highest levels of government for parties of all political colours, you could say my resistance to the barbs of the Fourth Estate is quite high.
But there is one thing that does make my blood boil, and that is when an individual is attacked through the media or by the media in an unfair manner.
Which is why the Badinage household was not a pleasant place to be when my morning newspaper arrived one day recently.
It made me fume to see, splashed across almost a full page, a story about how young Prince Harry had turned up at a chum's fancy dress party.
It was unbelievable to me that any newspaper would bother to print such drivel, let alone devote a dozen or so pages to it as one of the UK tabloids had apparently done.
I can say without hesitation - and from personal experience - that Prince Harry does not deserve the vilification he has received at the hands of the world media.
Regular readers of The Bug would know that before Prince Harry visited Australia for an extended stay beginning in late 2003, Prime Minister Howard had personally asked me to accompany the prince while in our country.
As I wrote in my column in the October 2003 edition of this newspaper, the PM asked me to keep an eye on the prince because I had performed the same sort of duty when Harry's father, Prince Charles, had stayed in Australia in 1966 to attend Geelong Grammar School's campus at Timbertop in the Victorian Highlands.
At that time, now almost 40 years ago, it had been another Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, who had requested me to accompany an heir to the throne while visiting our country.
"I need someone I can trust to keep an eye on him, without getting in the way of course,"was the way Mr Howard put it - almost word for word as Sir Robert spoke decades earlier.
A large part of Prince Harry's time Down Under was spent at the Tooloombilla cattle station in south-west Queensland. The property is owned by a friend of Prince Charles, and it was there that I got to know Prince Harry rather well.
The prince that I recall is one who has numerous hidden talents, not the least of which is an ability to mix well with others at social events.
Despite what the tabloids claim, he is certainly fit to be king if, heaven forbid, anything should happen to his brother William. As third in line to the throne, he is very matter-of-fact about such issues.
I well recall overhearing a conversation he was having at one of the many social evenings he helped organise at Tooloombilla. Chatting to one of the young ladies from a nearby property, he told her he was well equipped and would love the head job if things worked out that way.
From the time spent with him, it seemed to me that Prince Harry liked nothing better than a party and a chance to relax, without any of the formality, the airs and graces, that usually accompany royal events.
While in Sydney during his 2003 visit, he took it upon himself to organise a fancy dress party and encouraged everyone to turn up as a character from Australian history.
Although I admit to not embracing the idea of "dressing up", I still was mistaken for a "Mister Granger" from some British TV comedy show.
Young Prince Harry got into the swing of things and when I was asked to judge the award for best costume, out of politeness I gave it to the prince for his version of some actor or pop star with whom someone of my vintage is not familiar.
I was also lucky enough to get a snap of him on my trusty Kodak Box Brownie. The photo is reproduced here, and somewhat unwillingly because I still believe such social events should be "off the record", as indeed should have the recent party in London. But it appears technology in the form of mobile telephones with built-in cameras has put paid to that forever.
While the British gutter press does its best to destroy his reputation, take it from me that Prince Harry is not the person you read about in the papers. I can tell you that the prince is a personable young chap who is very fond of meeting new people.
The only change I'd like to see in Prince Harry is for him to give up smoking, especially the rather aromatic brand of roll-your-owns he tends to favour late at night and at parties.

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I have never been one to buy into the leadership contests of political parties and the current race for the top job in the ALP is no different.
All I am willing to say on the matter is that the Labor Party is lucky to have so many people such as Kim Beazley, Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Stephen Smith, Kevin Rudd, Lindsay Tanner, who are capable of serving as Leader of the Opposition.
The party's MPs must certainly be buoyed by the fact that, given the ALP's recent performance, all six stand a chance of doing just that.

Rufus Badinage MBE, now retired, is one of Australia's leading experts on politics and public administration having worked as a senior bureaucrat for various state and federal governments.