Dear Margo, Thank you for your courageous book. It's to the point, well presented and written. I agree with everything you touched on. You invited comments and ideas; here are mine. Most Australians used to be taught that an uncritical view of our national past will generate an equally subservient acceptance of the present. Since John Howard became our PM we have been told to forget about the past and try to live in the comfort of the present, like we used to in the 1950s.

And we all know what they were like: xenophobic, narrow-minded and bigoted years when dealing with anything which did not originate in Britain, North America or New Zealand. Hugh MacKay has pointed out that 'most of us welcome lies that make us feel better'.

Hence the political success of John Howard. Or, as Curtis White emphasises in his book 'The Middle Mind: Why Americans don't think for themselves', when democratic principles are diluted as a result of lies and hypocrisy - whether by acts of waging illegal wars and occupations or destabilising public education and Medicare - it breeds a disengagement of disgust that has the capacity to destroy our critique and invention. This is further compounded by the mass media owned by Kerry Packer, Kerry Stokes and Rupert Murdoch who, like claqueurs, applauds John Howard's acrobatic politics.

Folklore has it that Bob Menzies had once replied to a potential new member of the Liberal Party who was known for his left-wing political views: 'Young man, it has been my experience that to navigate and maintain the course necessary to fly the dizzy heights of government successfully, one needs two wings: a right wing and a left wing. You are more than welcome to join our great party.' John Howard chose to fly the dizzy heights of government with onle one wing: the right wing. Aerodynamics dictates that he is bound to crash sooner rather than later, provided we can get the thinking of all Australian voters mobilised.

One of the most contradictory aspects of John Howard's politics is the inconsistency between his outspoken support for the British monarchy and his lack of interest in what would be regarded as its corollary - the principles of the Westminster system and its traditions.

Voting declaration: Menzies four times; Holt and Gorton once; Whitlam four times; Hayden once; Fraser once; Hawke four times, Keating twice; Beazley twice; Howard never. I would rather seek political asylum in New Zealand than vote for John Howard.

Some years ago, when you were still 'The Oracle of Politics at Canberra' on LNL, I suggested to Phillip Adams that our present system of Australian Honours was unimaginative in its concept and pedestrian in its application. Little did I know that he was one of our Honour system's creators and recipients. This is some of what I wrote back in 2001:

'Margo Kingston is, of course, a boon. When the future republic of AUS - Australian Union of States - becomes a reality, which could still be in my lifetime, I recommend that Margo Kingston receives its second highest Gong of Honour: 'The Gamba of the Waratah with Gumleaves'. I carries the titular address of 'Gamba Margo'. Gamba, meaning 'a wise woman of mature years in charge of her own lair', comes from the Guugu Yimithirr language of the Cape York Peninsula between Cooktown and Cape Melville.'

The highest order of them all is the Order of Valour and Honour: 'The Gandal of the Rainbow Serpent.' Gandal, in the Guugu Yimithirr language, means 'the clear & clean and the bright white holy ghost. The master of light and the conqueror of darkness'. In our part of the 'Brown Land', the rainbow serpent is the protector and provider of all water and responsible for separating Australia from PNG and Indonesia. It lives now at the bottom of the billabongs in Cape York and, when you go fishing, the crocodiles, coming to the surface looking at you, are the eyes of the rainbow serpent's warriors keeping watch over the rainbow serpent and its pure intentions of Gandal.

People like Margaret & Gough Whitlam, William Deane and Louis O'Donoghue would qualify for this Honour. Retired politicians, head bureaucrats, senior military officers, the scarlet clergy, shock-jocks and judges could be nominated for consideration of elevation to the Order of: 'The Numbat of the Bullants.'

Our flag will be the present Aboriginal colours with the addition of a Simpson Desert coloured Roo in flight, leaping out of the heat of the yellow sun and, with the black & red bushfire background, we have achieved the symbolism of Australia's identity: Colonial trauma between the Redcoats and the Convicts, and the white settlers versus the indigenous population, while our future together is a fusion of redhot ideas tempered with the blackness of caution and setbacks. However, in the end, we triumph with the yellow sun giving life to flora & fauna and another Aussie morn'.

So long, Margo. Nice to have met, through your book, a kindred spirit.