An End To Nice, Safe Life In The Shadows

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday March 4, 1988

Dennis Shanahan

Before it even began, Ted Pickering's political career in government is almost finished. The Opposition's Leader in the Upper House has come under his first real scrutiny as a potential Cabinet minister and been found wanting.

His errors of omission over the gun policy and his compounding remarks have already led some of the shadow Cabinet to speculate that Mr Pickering may be found a position outside the Cabinet if the Coalition is victorious.

There is a simple view abroad that all the Opposition has to do is keep rolling in the country and it will win seats from Labor which could be vital for victory.

Mr Pickering's confusion over the gun laws is damaging that prospect.

For the past four years, after he removed his former Liberal colleague and leader, Mr Lloyd Lange, in a calculated coup, Mr Pickering has enjoyed the double obscurity of the Upper House and being in Opposition.

It is the nature of Opposition spokesmen to have lower profiles and, particularly during a four-year parliamentary term, to be irrelevant until an election draws near.

Away from the toughest debates and the party leaders in the Legislative Assembly, shadow ministers in the Upper House are even more shielded from the rigours of accountability.

It is government Cabinet ministers who are subjected to the closest scrutiny for their actions because what they say and do directly effects the public.

Like others from the Upper House before him, on both sides, Mr Pickering, 49, a mining consultant before entering the Upper House in 1976, has been pitchforked into the hurly-burly and has found it difficult.

Following his obvious blunders on the Opposition's policy on gun laws, Mr Pickering exacerbated the situation yesterday by again contradicting Liberal policy.

A plea to a journalist that he be excused for a blunder because he was inexperienced - in the field of media relations - is curious from someone who has been in Parliament since 1976.

As well, he is asking the NSW public to vote for the Liberals and make him Minister for Police.

In only 2 1/2 weeks' time he anticipates being in charge of the police force. If he can't say the right thing now, he cannot expect a sudden change after becoming a minister.

The problem for the Liberals is that Mr Pickering's blunders are indicative of the fact that the Opposition Leader, Nick Greiner, is the strongest and most likely Liberal to succeed as Premier.

The rest of his team, as is the case with all shadow Cabinets, has weaknesses.