WINDSCREENS

Clunes, NSW, Australia

There were the times, abridged, when the car had spun out of control on a six lane highway. He had hitch hiked half way across America, without incident you might say, when rain splattered across the highway. And shortly thereafter the driver, who had only just taken back control of the vehicle, didn't slow down. The car, doing great turns in the braking traffic, veered into the oncoming traffic. He wasn't going to die yet, but time had stopped, or slowed to increments. At the last minute the spinning car veered back the other way, crossing the highway and slamming into a ditch. Nobody stopped. They got out and stared at the mangled front. All hell was going to break loose in a single second, and they were surprised to be alive, or at least uninjured. He didn't remember now if there was steam from the radiator or not, although if it had been in the movies there would have been.

Random things came through windscreens, death most like. The world was heaving and he was lost in a minor outpost of consciousness; the dark storms just tunnels down a sink, a fractured lust. They could see everything and nothing. It was born of desperation, this desire to escape his pursuers. They distorted everything; turned everything into horror. If they had retreated, disengaged, he couldn't stand the tempest. No, he never had counselling for the torment they put him through. There could be no further explanation. They couldn't stand high in the mountain grove and pretend their DNA, their own strands of consciousness, would reach down into a generation they could not see. Events had overtaken torment; and he could do a perfectly good job of driving himself crazy. He didn't know what the next step was.

If he had missed the obvious, perhaps it was an obvious that was not meant to be. He didn't know. He had tried to establish a home, a base, so often, and they had all come crashing down. And now he had been nomadic for more than a year, and was fed up with it, too. He wanted his own place again, to interact with the world at his own discretion, as he saw fit, to be his own boss, master of his own destiny. Instead of being tossed by circumstance, and virulent spite. All else was pontless. Gravy at the bottom of a pan. Murk that couldn't even surface to a vivid dream. He buried his head more firmly. And waited for the wheels to turn.

As if all could be sensible, a deadened routine. If they wouldn't pursue him forever, for what? If they hadn't so determinedly wanted to kill him, for what? Time stretched out down too quiet streets, pointless, pointless. He could smell them, even as they were. A life lived in cars. A pointless gratitude. Another view across another sea. A barrel scraped bare. A terrible thing which had led nowhere. A car veering into oncoming traffic. He had always thought he would die through the windscreen of a car; and yet here he was. "How old are you?" one of the gang of bored youth shouted as he walked away, having just bummed a cigarette. "Three times your age," he answered back, and subsided into his old car, his mate ex-army. Shortly after the souped up cars cranked up, and shortly after the point was quiet. The tide was low; the night waves surfacing slow. "If you want to get rid of everyone just bum a cigarette," he observed; and they went back to watching the sea, unfulfilled.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/julia-gillard-and-kevin-rudd-demand-bigger-perks-for-former-prime-ministers/story-fni0cx12-1226766891140

KEVIN Rudd bombarded the incoming Abbott government with demands for taxpayer-funded assistance for two Brisbane offices, staff and other perks, even ringing the Prime Minister to discuss his arrangements.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal former prime minister Julia Gillard, who is believed to have secured a six-figure cash advance to write her memoirs, also requested an office in Melbourne and Adelaide and also sought an extra staffer, citing John Howard's arrangements as a precedent. Her request for a second office was denied.

MILLION DOLLAR PMS

KEVIN RUDD $200,000 pension plus estimated $300,000-a-year office and travel costs

JULIA GILLARD $200,000 pension plus estimated $300,000-a-year office and travel costs

JOHN HOWARD $250,000 pension plus $300,000 a year in office and travel costs.

PAUL KEATING $140,000-a-year office, travel, phone costs + pension

BOB HAWKE $130,000-a-year in office, travel, phone costs + pension

MALCOLM FRASER $220,000-a-year office, travel, phone + pension

GOUGH WHITLAM $125,000-a-year office, travel, phone + pension*

Source: Department of Finance documents.

When in New York, the two ex-PMs have also requested airport pick-up from the Department of Foreign Affairs and VIP treatment at international airports allowing them to skip the customs queue. Recently, this prompted a senior DFAT official to joke they should ask the ex-PMs to share a cab.

Keeping Labor's ex-PMs happy with offices, cars, pensions and free flights has proved double trouble for the incoming government. Traditionally, the new PM finalises the arrangements in consultation with their predecessors.

Kevin Rudd has defended the arrangements confirming he is in the process of finalising staffing and office arrangements.

"As of Friday, Mr Rudd's office had not received confirmation from the Government about his staff entitlements for the period ahead. It is a matter for the Government of the day," a spokeswoman said.

"Mr Rudd has not been allocated any staff by the current government as a former PM beyond that currently provided to Former PMs Keating and Hawke.

"He is unaware of staffing arrangements for Mr. Howard. Nor of current arrangements for Ms. Gillard.

"Mr Rudd has not been allocated extra staff by the government for assistance in writing any memoir."

With taxpayer funded pensions for life worth an estimated $200,000 a year, Labor's ex-PMs will double the retirement costs of former Prime Minister John Howard who served for 11 years. Based on Mr Howard's annual office, travel and car costs of $300,000 a year, the cost of keeping two former Labor PMs is likely to cost taxpayers up to $1 million a year in pensions, travel, car and office costs.

Unable to work together in government, it has emerged the bitter Labor enemies found one thing they could agree on - some of the taxpayer-funded benefits traditionally available to ex-PMs only after they leave politics should be granted to Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd while they remained in parliament.

"Clearly, it was a cosy deal but it was the taxpayer that footed the bill,'' a senior Coalition source said.

When he quit as foreign minister in 2012, the gravy train continued with Mr Rudd securing an entitlement to more taxpayer funded travel and spousal travel than he would have secured as a normal backbencher.

Asked directly if any of her staffers would now be involved in preparing research material for her memoirs, a spokesman for Ms Gillard referred the question to departmental officials.

"Staff arrangements for Ms Gillard have been approved by Prime Minister Abbott,'' he said. "The guidelines for Ms Gillard are exactly the same as those applying to other prime ministers. Any queries should be directed to the relevant government ministers and departments."