How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory – a lesson in hubris

How different it would have been if instead saying that he was ‘proud’ of his actions he had said,

”I apologise.

“I apologise for ignoring a long-standing convention in politics that has ensured fairness in our democratic processes for generations and I hope Victorians can forgive me for acting this way in response to an extraordinary set of circumstances.

“I have struggled internally to find the right balance between doing the right thing, which I always try to do, and folding meekly, given the onslaught of dishonesty shown by our Premier.

“Politics is a robust business and at times we can get quite fired up but there are rules and conventions that provide boundaries. The Premier broke through those boundaries in an attempt to ram through the Fire Services Bill by forcing the Parliament to sit on Good Friday while an opposing MP was too ill to attend and vote – a vote that would have ultimately seen the Bill rejected.

“It is time we hit the reset button and bring back some civility to Parliament. I would like to invite the Premier to sit down with me over a coffee and discuss, man to man, not Premier to Opposition Leader, how we can fix this mess that we have both created.

“I know that it will be a long way back, but it is important that we try, and important that we succeed.

Instead, the best Matthew Guy could manage was that he was “proud” to have broken the rules.

Poor fellow my country …