On Monday night, Q&A; raised the question: has Australia been looking for prime ministers in all the wrong places?
We've certainly looked long and hard. Across its time on air, the program has seen us through half a dozen changes of party leaders on both sides that have delivered us of four opposition leaders and five prime ministers, if you include Beta Kevin Rudd and Rudd 2.0. All of them have at one stage graced the Q&A; set. One man who has never set foot in the place, however, is the forgotten man of Australian politics, Kim Beazley.
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Q&A;: Chris Mitchell on Kim Beazley
The former editor-in-chief of The Australian believes it would have been better if Kim Beazley had remained Labor leader for the 2007 election.
Ah, Bomber, we hardly knew ye. And it turns out the former Labor leader might have been the answer all along. That, at least, was the contention of Monday night's panellist Chris Mitchell, the former editor-in-chief of The Australian, whose recent book is a sort of kiss-and-tell for the wonk brigade.
![Kim Beazley, Australian ambassador to the United States.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161026203337im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/i/b/x/o/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1441783662193.png)
He coulda been a contender: Kim Beazley. Photo: Joshua Roberts
In the book, and on Q&A;, Mitchell displays all the discretion and look-at-me brio of a Kardashian on an Instagram binge. Confidences were violated and Kevin Rudd's plaintive phone calls chronicled as Mitchell revealed the extreme weirdness of Australian politics as it is practised behind the scenes.
"Kevin rang regularly," said Mitchell.
Indeed, as Tony Jones went on to point out, Rudd had called Mitchell even before he became Opposition Leader. Nothing unusual about that, but what was quite incredible was Rudd's request: that Mitchell run a Newspoll for The Australian to find out whether he and Julia Gillard had a better shot at beating John Howard than the present Labor leader. Poor old Kim had no idea what was about to hit him. And neither did we.
"I suppose I was sceptical about the idea of Kevin being able to form a partnership with Julia," mused Mitchell last night. "Julia had greater numbers in the caucus. And I thought Kevin probably only had about 20 and I didn't see how that would stick together. But he claimed … he could pull the team together.
![Chris Mitchell on Q&A 25 October 2016](http://web.archive.org./web/20161026203337im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/9/o/o/i/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1477339192973.png)
Chris Mitchell on Q&A; 25 October 2016 Photo: ABC screengrab
"And what I say in the book is probably in hindsight it would have been better for the Labor Party and the country if Kim Beazley had remained leader, had won an election or not won an election, if it had been either Costello or Beazley, and it would have been better for Kevin and for Julia if they had been frontbenchers in a Beazley government.'
Jones: "Strangely enough I can see Tanya Plibersek nodding as you were saying that."
Plibersek: "I always thought Kim Beazley could have won that election."
Mitchell: "Me too."
Gee, thanks for letting us know now.
Plibersek went on: "I think we would have had a period of stability under Kim. I don't think we would have won [in 2007] by the same margin but I think we would have won. Both Kevin and Julia at that stage had a very legitimate aspiration to be leader some time in the future. But I think for both of them a period in a Beazley government would have been a very good thing and I think it would have been a great thing for the country."
![Tanya Plibersek nodded sagely](http://web.archive.org./web/20161026203337im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/9/o/o/n/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1477339926282.png)
Tanya Plibersek nodded sagely Photo: ABC screengrab
Alas, we will never know.
What we do know is that if you're ever thinking you might call Chris Mitchell for a late-night chin wag, don't. Even if you're Rupert Murdoch himself, because as Mitchell's book reveals, and as the Q&A; audience learned on Monday night, even the Grand Poobah himself was not safe from the danger that his most powerful Australian editor might one day feel the urge to unburden himself of your confidences, with the whole country listening in.
"You went into the personal stuff," Jones told Mitchell. "That's going down into the weeds. That's him [Murdoch] ringing you in despair and you're now putting it in a book. Did you have to think twice about doing that?"
"No," said Mitchell in a manner that suggested he hadn't even thought about it once.
"It came about at a time when he was about to remarry. I think there were a lot of people who were surprised that he took up with [now Mrs Murdoch, Mark IV] Jerry Hall. Family members out here in Melbourne were very keen after she had been acting in plays in Melbourne to get the two of them together. I think Rupert has a right to be happy. Good on him."
Jones: "Doesn't he have a right to his privacy?"
Mitchell: "I'm sure he does. I didn't think I breached anything."
And that, Australia, is how journalism and politics is played in this country. It's no place for the faint-hearted, and in that we might have the answer as to why Kim Beazley never did find his way to the top job: he wasn't even close to being a big enough bastard, and he was up against some of the best bastards in the business.
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