1 Australian Financial Review, 21 August 1996: 2, 17.Google Scholar

2 For instance, the leader of the Labor Party in the Senate remarked that ‘The Labor Party has been very, very good to Mal Colston. No one can argue that.’ See M. Gordon, ‘A Pawn in Their Game’, Weekend Australian, 24-25 August 1996: 22.Google Scholar

3 Given the contempt in which he was held, it is not surprising that hardly anything of a scholarly nature has been written on Colston. For possibly the most substantial offering, see Dickenson, J., Mal Colston: The Worst Rat of the Lot?, The History Cooperative, Conference proceedings. Accessed 20 October 2009 from www.historycooperative.org/proceedings/asslh2/dickenson.html; J. Iremonger, ‘Rats’, in J. Faulkner and S. Macintyre (eds), True Believers (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001), pp. 265–83.Google Scholar

4 Bilney, G., ‘To Lurks, Perks and Rorts, We Can Now Add Colstoning’, Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 3 May 1997: 10.Google Scholar

5 SMH, 6 March 1997: 3.Google Scholar

6 Age, 5 March 1997: 3; 8 March 1997: 24; Sun-Herald, 30 March 1997: 19.Google Scholar

7 SMH, 22 August 1996: 11; Age, 15 February 1997: 33; SMH, 8 March 1997: 33: Sun-Herald, 9 March 1997: 88; Age, 21 September 1997: 31; Courier-Mail, 13 November 2002: 21; Age, 26 August 2003: 1; Australian, 26 August 2003: 2; Age, 27 August 2003: 12; Canberra Times, 27 August 2003: 16.Google Scholar

8 Among the better articles on Colston's motivation - and Labor's insights into it - are W. Brown, ‘Tipping the Balance’, Courier-Mail, 23 August 1996: 13; and G. Chan, ‘Man in the Middle’, Australian, 22 August 1996: 11.Google Scholar

9 A good profile of Colston's pre- and early parliamentary career - possibly written by Colston himself - is in House Magazine, 2, 12, 20 September 1983: 3.Google Scholar

10 Courier-Mail, 4 March 1983: 5; 8 March 1983: 1; 9 March 1983: 2; 10 March 1983, pp. 1 and 2; 11 March 1983, pp. 1 and 13; 10 July 1987: 20; 13 July 1987: 1.Google Scholar

11 Many articles detail the posts for which Colston was rejected but for the one that perhaps best reveals the man's disappointment and bitterness, see S. Maher, ‘Slings and Arrows: Colston Rebels at “One Too Many”’, Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 10 November 1996, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

12 SMH, 12 February 1997: 1; Age, 15 February 1997: 33.Google Scholar

13 See, for example, comments by Gareth Evans (Courier-Mail, 21 August (996: 1), Michael Kaiser and John Faulkner (SMH, 21 August 1996: 5) and Tom Bums (Australian, 22 August 1996: 3).Google Scholar

14 Canberra Times, 22 August 1996: 3.Google Scholar

15 For one from Colston's home state, see ‘Colston in Breach of Moral Rights’, Courier-Mail, 22 August 1996. There were many more later - for example, ‘Colston's Duty was to Resign’, SMH, 4 November 1998: 14.Google Scholar

16 Gold Coast Bulletin, 31 November 1996: 34.Google Scholar

17 SMH, 4 December 1996: 2: Gold Coast Bulletin, 5 December 1996: 13.Google Scholar

18 SMH, 5 December 1996: 7.Google Scholar

19 Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates (Senate), 11 December 1996, pp. 7244–46: Canberra Times, 12 February 1997: 4; D. O'Reilly, Cheryl Kernot: The Woman Most Likely (Sydney: Random House, 1998): 345.Google Scholar

20 Daley, P., ‘To Trap the Rat’, Sunday Age, 13 April 1997: 18.Google Scholar

21 The report went on to say that ‘over the years a prominent Queensland Labor operative would often chortle into his beer when asked why the ALP kept returning Colston to the Senate, “Mate,” the operative would say, “we've got Colston where we want him. We've got the dirt on him and it's on paper.’” T. Wright, ‘Malpractice: Greed, Revenge and Frequent Flyer Points’, SMH, 8 March 1997, pp. 33 and 40.Google Scholar

22 Sunday Age, 2 March 1997: 1: SMH, 12 April 1997: 43. See also A. Ramsey, ‘The Dirt Sticks to Labor's Hands’, SMH, 12 April 1997: 43.Google Scholar

23 Daley, P., ‘Tribunal Told of Lying and Underhand Deals’, Sunday Age, 23 February 1997: 10. See also Age, 24 February 1997: 3 and Sun-Herald, 27 April 1997: 1.Google Scholar

24 Hillard, A., ‘The Hermit Senator’, Mercury (Hobart), 1 May 1997: 19.Google Scholar

25 Age, 25 February 1997: 3; 26 February 1997: 6.Google Scholar

26 SMH, 26 February 1997: 4: 27 February 1997: 4.Google Scholar

27 The most important of the Sunday Age's many revelatory articles on Colston were written by Paul Daley, who was later given a Walkley Award. See, in particular, ‘Senator Defends Expenses’, 15 September 1996: 8; ‘Senator Drawn into Expenses Dispute’, 16 February 1997: 1; ‘Key Senator Faces New Rorts Claim’, 23 February 1997: 1: ‘Tribunal Told of Lying and Underhand Deals’, 23 February 1997: 10; ‘How a Back-room Job Led to the Spotlight’, 23 February 1997: 10; ‘Probe Widens’, 2 March 1997: 1; ‘Colston May Resign Over Rort Allegations’, 9 March 1997; 1: ‘The Odd Man Out’, 9 March 1997: 9; ‘Claims Mount on Travel’, 16 March 1997: 3; ‘New Claim of False Expenses’, 30 March 1997: 1; ‘Colston Affair Sinks to a New Sleaze Level’, 30 March 1997: 2; ‘Pressure to Quit Increases’, 6 April 1997: 1; ‘Colston's Secret Meetings’, 13 April 1997: 3; ‘To Trap the Rat’, 13 April 1997: 18; ‘Test for Senate Friendship’, 27 April 1997: 2; ‘New Moves for Colston Inquiry’, 4 May 1997: 3; ‘Labor Threatens New Probe’, 20 July 1997: 3; ‘Colston Affair Set to Dog Howard’, 16 November 1997: 3; ‘Government Pulled Plug on Rorts Review’, 23 November 1997: 5: ‘Colston May Re-emerge for Wik Vote’, 8 February 1998: 5; ‘Government Hopes Wax Fat and Thin on Wik Politics’, 5 April 1998: 21; ‘One for the Records in a Nasty Business’, 19 July 1998: 17, See also S. Carney, ‘Exit Mal, a Senator for All Seasons’, 27 June 1999: 25.Google Scholar

28 Seccombe, M., ‘MP Declared a Disaster as Flow of Rorting Claims Turns to a Flood’, SMH, 27 February 1997: 4.Google Scholar

29 SMH, 4 March 1997: 4; 8 March 1997: 33; Sun-Herald, 30 March 1997: 28.Google Scholar

30 SMH, 5 April 1997: 2; 5 April 1997: 42; Age, 9 April 1997: 8; 10 April 1997: 1; 17 April 1997: 3.Google Scholar

31 SMH, 1 March 1997: 32.Google Scholar

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33 Age, 24 February 1997: 3.Google Scholar

34 SMH, 27 February 1997: 4.Google Scholar

35 Age, 28 February 1997: 2; SMH, 3 March 1997: 2; Sunday Age, 30 March 1997: 2.Google Scholar

36 SMH, 31 March 1997: 3.Google Scholar

37 SMH, 25 March 1997: 1; Age, 25 March 1997: 1.Google Scholar

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40 Richardson, N., ‘Piggy in the Middle’, Bulletin, 22 April 1997: 12; see also SMH, 15 April 1997: 2; 17 April 1997: 2; 18 April 1997: 15; 2 July 1997: 4.Google Scholar

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43 Age, 12 April 1997: 1; 15 April 1997: 1; 25 April 1997: 5.Google Scholar

44 Sun-Herald, 13 April 1997: 11.Google Scholar

45 Age, 10 April 1997: 1; 6 May 1997: 5.Google Scholar

46 Age, 6 May 1997: 5.Google Scholar

47 Age, 7 May 1997: 1; SMH, 7 May 1997: 9.Google Scholar

48 Age, 7 May 1997: 1; SMH, 7 May 1997: 9.Google Scholar

49 SMH, 7 May 1997: 1.Google Scholar

50 Age, 7 May 1997: 1.Google Scholar

51 SMH, 10 June 1997: 3.Google Scholar

52 SMH, 16 July 1997: 1.Google Scholar

53 See, for example, SMH, 27 April 1999: 2; 4 May 1999: 1; Age, 1 May 1999: 13; Illawarra Mercury, 4 May 1999: 4.Google Scholar

54 Age, 13 August 1997: 8; Illawarra Mercury, 13 August 1997: 2.Google Scholar

55 Age, 23 September 1997: 3.Google Scholar

56 See, for instance, the correspondence between Colston's doctors and lawyers, and between the latter and the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Parliamentary Library, Department of Parliamentary Services. In particular, see P. Georghiou to B. Morrissey, 18 March 1999: G. Beadle to B. Morrissey, 19 March 1999: S. Lynch to B. Morrissey, 24 March 1999; B. Morrissey to P. Walsh, 2 April 1999; M. Avers to B. Morrissey. 15 April 1999; B. Morrissey to D. (Douglas) Colston, 23 April 1999, See also the two letters - 29 April 1999 and 3 May 1999, parts of which have been blacked out - from Colston's office to the federal Attorney-General (copies of this correspondence were kindly sent to me by the Parliamentary Library in Canberra).Google Scholar

57 Sun-Herald, 23 November 1997: 16.Google Scholar

58 Ramsey, A., ‘The Swill Gives the House a Bath’, SMH, 13 December 1997: 45.Google Scholar

59 Sunday Age, 8 February 1998: 5.Google Scholar

60 Sunday Age, 8 February 1998: 5.Google Scholar

61 Age, 31 March 1998: 2.Google Scholar

62 Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates (Senate), 7 July 1998, pp. 5171–79: SMH, 8 July 1998: 1.Google Scholar

63 Sunday Age, 5 April 1998: 21.Google Scholar

64 SMH, 19 May 1998: 3.Google Scholar

65 When Colston finally left the Commonwealth Parliament in June 1999, he referred to the reporters who had pursued him over the last three years as ‘maggots’, It is likely he had Daley uppermost in his mind (Australian, 1 July 1999: 3).Google Scholar

66 Daley, P., ‘Colston's Tell-all “Shame File" to Stay Unopened’, Age, 3 April 1998: 7.Google Scholar

67 SMH, 6 July 1998: 1.Google Scholar

68 Sun-Herald, 12 July 1998: 1.Google Scholar

69 Age, 11 July 1998: 4.Google Scholar

70 Commonwealth Parliamentary: Debates (Senate), 11 July 1998, pp. 5675–77; R. Wear, ‘Commonwealth of Australia July to December 1988’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 45(2) (1999): 254–55.Google Scholar

71 Sun-Herald, 12 July 1998: 2.Google Scholar

72 Wright, T., ‘Let Us Pray … for the Senate’, Sunday Age, 12 July 1998: 1.Google Scholar

73 Illawarra Mercury, 13 July 1998: 1.Google Scholar

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75 SMH, 3 November 1998: 18.Google Scholar

76 Illawarra Mercury, 21 April 1999: 4.Google Scholar

77 See, for instance, the statements by the leader of the government in the Senate, Robert Hill (SMH, 2 November 1998: 2) and the deputy prime minister Tim Fischer (Illawarra Mercury, 3 November 1998: 2).Google Scholar

78 Illawarra Mercury, 21 April 1999: 4: 29 April 1999: 5; Age, 4 May 1999: 4.Google Scholar

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81 Age, 6 July 1999: 1; SMH, 7 July 1999: 3 and 18; 8 July 1999: 3.Google Scholar

82 Reports differ, but the most common estimate of the superannuation Colston took with him was $1.3 million.Google Scholar

83 Given his obvious obesity and outrageous rorts, Colston was both a cartoonist's and a satirist's delight, See, for instance, Anon., The Unauthorised Mal Colston Travel Diary (Sydney: Swot-Café Publishing, 1997).Google Scholar

84 SMH, 20 April 1999: 1.Google Scholar

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86 Courier-Mail, 7 March 2001: 1; Australian, 8 August 2003: 3.Google Scholar

87 There were dozens of obituaries of Colston between 25 and 30 August 2003, but see in particular G. Kitney, ‘Kind Words in Short Supply as Labor Maintains its Rage Against Colston’, SMH, 26 August 2003: 31: ‘Deathly Quiet Grips Labor’, Courier-Mail, 26 August 2003: 6.; T. Maguire, ‘Cancer Finally Claims Colston’, Daily Telegraph, 26 August 2003: 2.Google Scholar

88 Sweetman, T., ‘Scales of Justice Over Mal's Eyes’, Courier-Mail, 13 November 2002: 21.Google Scholar