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Iron Mark's Crikey Q&A

Crikey Website - 18 October 2005

Earlier this month former Opposition Leader and diarist Mark Latham agreed to answers questions directly from Crikey subscribers – unedited and unadulterated. Here's a selection of the correspondence offered exclusively to our subscribers ...

 

Shaun Micallef: Enjoying your diary enormously. Read out the nice things in it on radio for a week (as a contrast to the other stuff that the press were putting out there). Just wondered whether you got an okay from Keating to quote the passages of private conversation you had together. I ask this given your perfectly justifiable lambast of the press for invading your own privacy?

Mark Latham: I'm glad you enjoyed the book Shaun. And yes, like most parts of Australian politics, the real thing is different to the media reporting of it. In practice, a diarist cannot ask permission to publish material – my book would have had an introduction and not much else (probably just a few Joel Fitzgibbon yarns). All the diary entries concerning Keating relate to public affairs, issues and personalities. I had several long conversations with him about private matters but at no stage thought they were suitable for inclusion in the Diaries. I think that's a fair cop.

 

From Crikey Website