Late bloomer. Image by Webdiary artist Martin Davies. www.daviesart.com

My bed is starting to get crowded with strange bedfellows.

The other morning I woke up next to Carmen Lawrence, half asleep, half awake as she whispered sweet nothings about education in my ear. Later in the day I realised that Carmen’s sweet nothings were actually fundamental truths totally aligned with my values.

Seldom does one hear such things upon awakening. I realised that getting into bed with Carmen was more my cup of tea than I had previously expected. I kicked bias out the window, focused on common sense and the reality of Carmen’s position. It just seemed so right.

I’m starting to feel a bit groggy, but I’m sure I found Mark Latham in my bed only three days later. It’s all such a blur. He was singing a gentle lullaby about competition and the reform fatigue that has set in. He wants to wake up and get about reforming again. He was talking about making markets work with sensible regulation. He wanted to enable competition where it had never been seen.

In the end I had to ask him to stop. It was like he was reading my mind and playing it back so I have to think it was a dream. How else could I explain his presence in my political bed around the same time as Carmen? It was getting so busy I wasn’t sure who was in and who was out anymore.

Today I woke up next to Robert Coombs from the Maritime Union of Australia. This is beyond twilight zone. Despite the fact that he was there uninvited he was quite matter of fact about it all. He was unhappy that Labor Premier Bob Carr wants to kill Sydney Harbour as a working port.

I agreed with everything he said. I don’t want to turn it over to Sydney mega-developer Meriton. I don’t want working ports Mertonised. I like the heritage aspect – that from day one Sydney Harbour was a working port and the city’s commercial lifeline to the world. Bustling ports are things that maritime workers and dirty capitalists like me really like.

In the end they all seemed to be in bed with me at once. Carmen, Mark and Robert. Education, sensible regulation to enable markets to work properly, and working ports. All things that appealed to me. My bedfellows have been unexpected this week, but I can’t say I was disappointed and somehow all the right buttons were pressed.

It was against this backdrop, Margo that I read you describing me in the Sun Herald as a corporate high flyer and a true blue Liberal.

I didn’t need to be pinched and I don’t appreciate you waking me up. Thanks a lot. Let me live in my dream world where strange bedfellows become welcome friends.

At the time of Telecard I kicked Peter Reith out of my political bed, but I never thought things would turn to such a degree that the MUA would be on the pillow beside me.

It is not just a dream and I’m not making this up. I couldn’t agree more with EXACTLY what these three individuals are saying, and I am not too proud to say so. To me politics is not a religion, it is about making things work in the way that I think makes sense.

Life at the pragmatic centre is hardly boring. It is a very challenging place to be. It is an open place, a marketplace where good ideas are appreciated. Laurence, Latham and Coombs had good ideas this past week, so good that I don’t want to make a single knit picky point about any of it except to thank them for their contributions to our wonderful public life.

Tonight I will get into bed with some trepidation. Who wants to be the next political bedfellow of a confused Liberal?