Most people are under the impression that politicians alone help shape the course of national and world events.
That is simply not true.
Take for example a meeting I had a few weeks back with our Prime Minister, John Howard.
I was in Sydney and decided to pop into Kirribilli House where the PM was laid up with pneumonia.
I found him to be in good spirits while battling his debilitating illness. He was rugged up in his dressing gown and slippers watching video-tapes of his favourite television show, Mr Ed – very kindly supplied by Kerry Packer.
I am loathe to take credit for subsequent events, but cannot help but feel my comments to him played some part in his decision to launch into tax reform as soon as he was back on deck.
Alone in the loungeroom of the PM’s official Sydney residence, with its sweeping views across the harbour, he sought my advice on the general issue of revenue raising.
Without wanting to sound immodest, I am acknowledged both at home and abroad as something of an expert in the field.
My ideas for fiscal reform have been sought and implemented by many administrations around the world, most recently by the Albanian government.
The PM was certainly impressed with my somewhat lateral thinking in suggesting a national pyramid investment scheme in Australia.
He looked long and hard at me in silence –a look I have witnessed from many leaders when I have outlined my ideas.
I could sense the PM was weighing up the pros and cons of my suggestion as he put his head in his hands and let out a sigh which I interpreted to mean: Why didn’t I think of that?
But, after several moments, he politely inquired whether I had any other “bright ideas” before pressing a button on the side of his chair, I presumed to summon his lovely wife Jeanette from elsewhere in the house to share in my thoughts.
I suspect the PM has pigeonholed my suggestion for use at a later date – a not uncommon practice of the leaders I have been proud and privileged to serve.
The other proposal I put to him was for a shift in state revenue raising from fees and charges to gambling, specifically poker machines.
It is a simple idea. (That Edward de Bono book was one of the best investments I have ever made.)
Instead of having poker machines pay out cash prizes, they should be configured to pay out vouchers for government services: child care fees, hip replacement operations, school textbook allowances and the like.
Such a scheme would not only reduce government red tape, it would enable even bigger cuts in personal income tax at the federal level since states would ultimately spend funds they raised themselves from their own citizens.
Its simplicity is its best feature. Even Mr Howard called it, and me, “simple-minded” – a compliment I must rightly share with Mr de Bono.
A crisis of some description requiring Mr Howard’s urgent attention must have erupted during our chinwag, because my visit with our brave Prime Minister was cut short by the arrival of several of his bodyguards who escorted me to the front gate.
But I left comforted by the knowledge that I had again played some small part in shaping our great nation’s history.

While our new Queensland state Governor, Major General Peter Arnison, is performing his role admirably, I must admit he was not my first choice when Queensland Premier Borbidge rang me earlier this year seeking advice on Leneen Forde’s replacement at Fernberg.
The name I put forward was not one the Premier had on his short-list – Wendy Lange, a jailed husband killer otherwise known as the Black Widow.
Lange has served more than nine years for murdering her husband Geoff outside Toowoomba in 1986.
She paid two men to kill him and legend has it she bought a black dress to wear to his funeral even before the murder – hence the Black Widow tag.
I told Mr Borbidge I thought Lange would make an ideal governor and outlined a list of reasons for picking her.
For a start, she would be used to living in the big house with elaborate security measures.
By now she would be used to doing very little of consequence and she would certainly have at least a layperson’s grasp of the law and how it operates.
As a proven liar (she denied any involvement in her husband’s killing before confessing) she would be at home among politicians.
Lange is also quite good at securing publicity. The Courier-Mail has always given her story a good run, although that may change with Sallyanne Atkinson back in town.
And her appointment would continue the practice of positive discrimination by making her only the second woman to hold the vice-regal post in Queensland.
Sure she may have been a murderer once, but she isn’t at all frumpy. In fact in the photos I have seen of her she looks rather pretty.
It would also have been good to get away from military types – no offence to the Arnisons.
Still, all is not lost. The governor is appointed for a five-year term so Lange could still fill the post come 2002.
And, if she is still behind bars, her first job could be to give herself a pardon.

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.