Paul Keating was not in my view a great parliamentarian. He was however a leader and a great politician. Who could forget his hilarious "cooee" to then senator Bronwyn Bishop who was moving to the lower house. Or the withering line about doing John Hewson slowly.

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Above all he wasn't weak. Leadership, discipline and courage are never demonstrated by undermining your own team in order to get what you want. Small people have small dreams, for themselves. Leaders have bigger dreams, for Australia.

Weakness in politics is an ugly trait. It's what undermines do. Keating on the other hand let Bob Hawke know up front it was time for him to go. Bob had a different perspective. That's a common trait among PMs. After a few years in office they all think they are the one and only.

Keating took him on in a direct challenge. And lost. He went to the backbench and won the second time around. And then set about implementing some of his dreams.

Contrast that to what's happening now in the Coalition parties in Canberra. There's a few blokes who think - no, my guess is they are sure - they would be better leaders. They knew it before they got there. Let's rephrase that. They got there in order to fulfil their desired destiny of being leader. That is more important to them than being part of a winning team that delivers good government. You can bet they didn't say that when they were asking to be the candidate. That spiel would have been all about the importance of teams. But they only want the team game played when they're the leader. Cute and dumb.

They pay no respect to the choice of the party room and thus no respect to the choice of fellow members of that room. Which party? The party whose name and resources they used to get elected.

Doesn't sound great, does it? You use a party to get elected, to be part of the team. Then the leadership baton in your knapsack says "You're a natural, give it a go." So you do and you lose. Not happy Jack? Never mind, there's always tough spots in politics and when one arises you can use it to your advantage. Perhaps you don't stand as........

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