Willow,
Re the PM's judgement with Hollingworths appointment.
Given the political history between the countrys religious denominations,Howard was actually trying to kill 2 birds with the one stone.His action was an attempt to alienate the Catholics by concentrating the political power into the Methodist/Anglican/Protestant religious sector.Basically put,traditionally, the majority of Catholics are Labor voters and the Anglicans are liberal voters.Whilst that might not necessarily be such an influence in todays society,nevertheless I believe it was a component of Howards thinking when he appointed Hollingworth.Howard is a devotee of Menzies and this was an opportunity for him to maintain his traditions.It also allowed him to continue his politics of divide and conquer.It was a smart political choice to appoint Hollingworth.
It was, however, a poor personal choice.Hollingworth, like Kerr, is a bloke wrapped up in own self-importance, and his decision to forsake a sworn clegy role to appease his own ego made him a potential liability to both Howard and the country.
Hollingworth is a shallow person who likes to dress up in formal attire (robes etc,by the way,Hollingworth is on the public record as having stated his preference for robes,it was one of the things that attracted him to the clergy as a career).
He has similiarity to Kerr in that he likes to be in powerful positions, but lacks the courage to stand for elected office, and it does not take long for gutless bastards to get found out.
Hollingworths inactions whilst he was archbishop smacks of self-protection.
Consequently when Howard chose him to be GG he made a choice based on politics not a personal choice (judgement) of the character of the person required to be able to do the job to the level expected by the community.
This is one of those occassions where Howard had a failure of judgement fuelled by his political ambitions.
One of the beauties of the current situation is that when Hollingworth goes (and he will go),is that all the nonsense about him resigning with his dignity intact,will be just garbage.His dignity is now out the window and he just looks like a dopey,stubborn old prick being held together by a self-righteousness that only he believes.
Soon this thin defense will crumble and he will either descend into a senile mess or suicide.
Serves the bastard right.His ambitions didn't allow him the insight to see how Howard was using him, and that is secondary to deliberately leaving children at the high risk of being sexually molested by self-confessed predators.
