Chapter 51: The Company Continues to Grow

Despair

May 1996

Each weekend in May we had our return season at the Pumphouse; we hoped that our series of live performances might give a boost to the CD sales. The album had sold moderately well, certainly not to the same levels that our ‘Roberttones’ albums sold, but they were targeted at different markets. Mary Beth had been contacted by the venue management, they wanted to change the image of the Pumphouse to a place where the more ‘sophisticated’ young adults – in their mid-twenties to thirties would come for some quiet drinks and some relaxing music. Just as the Basement, down at the Quay was ‘the place’ to listen to jazz, and the Three Weeds in Balmain was ‘the place’ for folk music, they wanted the Pumphouse to be ‘the place’ for adult contemporary music.

It was an interesting transition in musical style for us; Allison had convinced Garry to join us, he would alternate between playing bass and rhythm guitar. So with him, Stewie and Traci, we had grown from the original three-piece group. The first weekend in May had all six of us performing; crowds were as large as they had been back in January, which gave us a chance to sell copies of the album. Sales were approaching twenty thousand copies, and we were getting reasonable airplay, but since we didn’t have a single released, there was nothing to get rated on the ‘Top 40’ chart.

What was of more immediate concern was a phone call from Paul Keating the previous day, seeing if I could come down to Canberra for a meeting for the first few days of the following week. He was hosting an emergency summit meeting, senior people from both the Government and Opposition, the premiers and opposition leaders from all the state and territory governments to plan a reaction to the Port Arthur massacre and see what legislative changes could be made to prevent similar events from taking place. I would stay with Cathy, driving down on Sunday afternoon, and back on the Thursday morning. Lisa couldn’t get the time off from her work to come down with me, much to her disappointment.

The police had caught the person responsible, a twenty-five-year-old loner named Martin Bryant, who had killed thirty-five people, and wounded some twenty-three others across several locations around Port Arthur. There was widespread shock and amazement across Australia, people found it hard to comprehend that someone here would have done such a heinous thing. Gun laws in Australia were relaxed, except for handguns; the last attempt at enacting any sort of gun reform failed when the Tasmanian government refused to consider any new restrictions or controls. However, public opinion was very strongly in favour of bringing in restrictions on the ownership of the types of weapons Bryant had used in the massacre. Some fringe groups had come out of the woodwork, saying ‘now wasn’t the time to infringe on our rights to own guns’, but most people laughed at them; there wasn’t the same level of national identity concerning gun ownership in Australia as there was in some other countries, such as the United States, where ‘The Right to Bear Arms’ was enshrined in their constitution, and was an integral part of their identity.

I really wasn’t sure what chances for any meaningful reform were likely, the States of Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia had always been against any form of gun control. I was unsure what a workable solution to the problems of gun massacres would be; I wasn’t convinced that gun ownership was the only cause. There were some countries with high per capita rates of gun ownership which didn’t have anywhere near the number of gun massacres as the top country – which was the USA. I felt that there must be something else that causes a person to want to go out and kill as many people in cold blood as possible. Certainly, if Martin Bryant was mentally handicapped, as several sources had suggested, one could raise the concern that people who were not in full control of their faculties should not be allowed to purchase or own firearms. One issue was why high capacity, high powered semi-automatic weapons were necessary for civilian gun owners. I was sure all of these, and other concerns, would be raised during the meeting.

I arrived at Cathy’s place late in the afternoon after a leisurely drive down from Sydney, she gave me a big hug and kiss, and help me take my case into her bedroom.

“If you want, I’ll let you unpack and we can get some Vietnamese for dinner,” she said. “You might want a shower to freshen up; I’ve left towels for you on the rails behind the door. Make yourself at home, Will, it’s great having you here. A pity that Lisa couldn’t get the time off, but that’s understandable.”

Since I was going to be sleeping here for the next four nights, I unpacked my case, putting my clothes in the spare drawers of the dresser and hanging my clothes in the closet where Cathy had made space for me. I was just about to get undressed to take a shower when Cathy stuck her head in the room.

“While you shower, I’ll get dinner for us,” she said. “Anything in particular you want from the restaurant?”

“No, everything I’ve had from there is great,” I said. “As long as there are some of those lovely spring rolls, plus whatever else you want, that will be fine. I’ll just give Lisa a call to let her know I arrived here if that’s okay.”

Cathy said that would be fine, so I had a quick shave, took a shower, washed my hair, then got dressed and gave Lisa a call. I told her we would be having Vietnamese, and she told me to give Cathy her love. I had just hung up when Cathy arrived home with the food, so we set the table. Cathy asked me if I would like some wine with dinner, since we weren’t planning on going out, I agreed.

“I’ll set the table, Will, if you can open the bottle of wine,” she said. “There are wine glasses in that cupboard above the counter there.”

I opened the bottle, what looked to be like a nice Rosemont chardonnay, and poured two glasses, leaving the bottle on the table. The food was good, as it always was, and after we had finished dinner, we moved to the living room. I sat on the main sofa, putting my wine on the side table, and Cathy asked me if I would like a coffee, to which I said I would.

“I don’t know what’s gone wrong in this country, Cathy,” I said. “I’m down here, to talk about what should be done after some mentally disturbed person kills over thirty people in a shooting rampage. The other month, we had that Pauline Hanson elected to parliament, espousing the vilest of racist and fascist policies, and she got massive support from the voters, and there’s widespread support in some areas for her. What’s gone wrong with Australia? I’ve been working to try to keep those ultra-right-wing people out of power, striving to keep the Labor party on its traditional path, but I feel like I’ve failed. I despair for the future of the country, if something doesn’t happen to improve things, Howard will win the next Federal election, and undo all the good work of the last thirteen years. We are on the verge of losing everything that makes this a wonderful country.

“I can remember how you first got me involved in politics, back at the end of 1975 when Gough Whitlam was dismissed, we both thought that all the great changes he had made to the country, pulling us out of the dark ages would be for naught. But this has the potential to be far worse.”

“It’s not like you to be so pessimistic, Will,” she said. “You should be proud of everything you’ve done; your advice and counsel has kept Labor in power federally since 1983, and your strategies were the deciding factor in the last two elections. They were written off as ‘unwinnable’ for us, but you came up with a winning plan. Barely a day goes by without Paul asking out loud ‘What would Will Morris recommend?’. You know he’s got a huge ego, and it’s a battle to get him to listen to what anyone else would say to him, but he takes your advice without question. Look at New South Wales, you helped Bob Carr win government there after the debacle when Neville Wran retired. Somehow, you’ve been able to defuse the power of the New South Wales Labor right since that thug Tom Domican was been blown away – literally!

“What you may not realize, Will, is just how much your thoughts and opinions are respected among the senior ministers – Gareth Evans, Michael Duffy, Kim Beazley, Bob McMullen – not just those from the Left, but pretty much everyone. The only one who doesn’t like you is Peter Walsh...”

“But no one likes him, I recall Bob Hawke calling him a ‘miserable cunt’,” I cut in.

“True. The fact that you can piss Walsh off is a big plus for you,” she continued. “Seriously Will, you probably don’t understand just what a big influence you have here in Canberra. I’m concerned about you feeling so despondent, are you sure there’s nothing else going on in your life? Do you think it’s a reaction to Fiona no longer being a part of your life?”

“I think you are right,” I said. “Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much in love with Lisa, she’s the most important person in my life. Alexa is great as a partner, too, but she’s only around one or two nights a week. There was something about being with Fiona that seemed to revitalize me, give me a fresh outlook on life. It’s funny, you know how she asked me to accompany her to her cousin’s wedding and play the role of her ‘boyfriend’. Well, things just didn’t feel right between us, there was just something that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I wasn’t all that comfortable.”

“There was something you put your finger on,” she said, laughing, “or in, I bet!”

“Yeah, well, there was that,” I said. “But that was something that made me change my approach to dating women, I wanted to make sure we both knew each other very well before we started to get serious. Which turned out to be a good lesson for me, I didn’t screw anything up with Lisa, or subsequent relationships.”

“Except almost going to slowly,” Cathy commented. “Lisa told me about how she had to give you a kick in the arse, so to speak. I think your revised approach to relationships is wise; I’m not suggesting that you were far too casual or promiscuous before, but you’ve had lots more sexual partners than I have had. Did you know, you and Martin have been the only two guys that I have had sex with?”

“I sort of suspected that,” I said. “I’m not wanting to pry into your personal sex life, but why no male partners since your divorce?”

“You aren’t prying, Will, you’re a close friend, a confidant, I should be able to talk about anything with you,” she said. “To be honest, I haven’t really had the desire to sleep with another guy. I went out on a few dates in the early days, but the spark just wasn’t there. I had no desire to do anything with them, beyond a tame kiss. That’s not to say I haven’t been sexually active, apart from you and Lisa, there have been a few women I’ve been on dates with, and one seems to be developing into something more serious, but I’m taking things slowly with her.”

“That’s good, and taking things slowly, I can certainly recommend that. Who is she, and how did you meet?”

“Her name is Sue, Sue Blackall. She’s also in the local photography club, there was a club assignment a few months back, well, spring last year, we had to find some interesting rock formations, so she and I went hiking up in the Tidbinbilla ranges, west of the city. We had known each other for a few years, done some shoots together for various club events. One thing led to another, and we ended up making love out on the grass up in the mountains; when we had finished, there were maybe twenty kangaroos standing around watching us! But we are both just experimenting, trying to work out what we both want in a relationship. You know I’ve been bisexual for ages, first with Lori and Janelle back at High School; I’m starting to think I’m moving closer to being purely lesbian that bi. Except for you, you’re the only man I could consider having sex with.”

“You know my thoughts, provided you’re not hurting anyone, you do whatever makes you happy,” I said. “If you and this Sue enjoy things, and are happy with the relationship, that’s great; I’m happy for you.”

“Well, what I would really love, if I wasn’t working here, and I didn’t enjoy my job so much would be to move back to Sydney, and live with you and Lisa, if you would have me,” she said. “I’ve mentioned it once or twice to Lisa, and she seems receptive of the idea, what would you think?”

“It sounds like I would be in trouble with Lisa if I said ‘no’,” I replied. “Seriously, if you felt you would be happy in Sydney, and not working in Canberra, then I’d like that. You would have to want to move back to Sydney, and be in a job you enjoyed, that’s the first thing. Otherwise, you will be filled with regrets, no longer doing the work you love and fulfils you. There are all sorts of implications and innuendos you would have to be able to cope with, being a partner of Lisa and mine; you know I can never give you another child, not with my infertility.”

“I’m not worried about the children aspect,” she said. “I know what outside scrutiny and comments I would be subject to, being in a romantic partnership with the two of you; Canberra is pretty socially liberal, pretty permissive, and even with that, I still get the odd comment of ‘lezzie’ and ‘dyke’ being with Sue. I’m thick-skinned enough, I can handle all that stuff. The job, at least not working here doing what I’m doing with the government, if I didn’t have that job, I would be unhappy. I’m doing what I’ve always dreamed of, following the desire I had well over twenty years ago. But ... it’s something at the back of my mind, should the situation here change, you might find me at your front door one day.”

“And you would be most welcome,” I said. “That would be something all three of us would enjoy. Now, I should start to get my thoughts in line for the meeting tomorrow.”

“Do you want to sit at the desk in my study?” she asked. “That might be easier for you.”

I got my papers and a notepad and took a seat at the desk in Cathy’s study. I had made copies of some of the newspaper reports and Paul had sent me the preliminary police report of the massacre. Reading through the details, it seemed pretty horrific, how Bryant had methodically stalked and killed all of those people in cold blood. It didn’t sound like the work of a madman, someone who was deranged – like O’Connell was when he tried to kill me. This was the work of someone determined to kill as many people as possible, he had chosen the weapons – a Colt AR-15 and the FN L1A1 ‘Self-loading rifle’ – and large capacity magazines to be able to shoot as many people as possible in a short period of time. The L1A1 rifle had been the Australian Army’s standard issue infantry rifle for many years, it had only just recently been replaced in the late 1980s.

How these military-grade weapons were able to be purchased by a civilian, and a person who was receiving a disability pension because of his mental health. That would be one of the first things that should be looked at, implementing controls over who could and could not purchase firearms, and the types of weapons available to the public. I could see no valid reason why a civilian user would need such weapons, those designed for killing enemy troops on the battlefield. At least any effort to introduce controls over gun ownership in Australia wouldn’t face the same issues as they would in the USA; Australia didn’t have a ‘fundamental right’ to bear arms enshrined in its constitution, but rather relied on the historical English Bill of Rights, dating to 1689 and the common law. However, I am sure there would be some opposition to curtail gun ownership, mainly from Queensland, Tasmania (ironically) and Western Australia; at previous national gun summits those States had shown considerable resistance to gun law changes. I wasn’t quite sure what Paul Keating had proposed for the ‘summit’ this coming week, but there would be some rather interesting discussions.

I thought that with me having a license to carry a handgun, which originated back from when Tommy Domican was behind the threats to Lisa and me might cause some comments along the lines of ‘do what I say, not what I do’. I decided that whatever the outcome of this week’s meeting, I would give up the pistol and my license. It would be hard to justify me calling for a general disarmament of the public while I kept a pistol for my own self-defence.

I felt I had prepared enough for the meetings, and it was time Cathy and I headed off to bed. As we were getting undressed in her bedroom, she wrapped her arms around me, and hugged me tight.

“Can you make love to me gently; do you remember that last summer we spent together in Sydney before I left for Canberra? We would spend each night sleeping together in your bed, it was so romantic. Can we do that again these coming nights, and I can pretend that we never really parted, and you are still with me? I know it’s just make-believe, but it would be special for me.”

I was slightly concerned that Cathy was trying to conjure up a fantasy, wishing to rewrite history, but I felt I owed her at least a few nights of romantic lovemaking.

“That sounds lovely,” I said to her. “I should have brought some silk pyjamas down to wear.”

“Oh, no, I want you completely naked, so I can have you anytime I want!” she said. “That’s how we’ve always slept together, both of us naked.”

She pulled the covers back, and slid into bed, I got in next to her, and she scooched across so that we were lying close to each other. She lay on her side, facing me, and I put an arm around her, holding her tight. I could feel her breasts pressing against my chest, her nipples were hard, erect. I reached up, cupping a hand around her small, pert breast – they were still lovely and firm – rubbing my fingers and thumb across the hard nipple. Cathy sighed; her eyes closed.

“If you keep that up, I won’t be able to control myself,” she whispered. “Your hands, your fingers are so good.”

I moved my hands lower, and gently pushed her so she was lying on her back and spread her legs open. I moved around so my face was between her thighs, moved a hand up to slide my fingers between her moist labia, and started rubbing up and down her slit. I could see the wetness around her opening, her clit was swollen, and I moved my face forward, licking her clit with the tip of my tongue. She moaned and shuddered, I pushed a finger inside her, and started to suck on her clit. It didn’t take long before Cathy had her first orgasm, I could feel her body shudder and she cried out softly, begging me not to stop. I continued licking and rubbing her, her second orgasm was stronger than the first.

“No more, I have to have you inside me,” she said, pulling on my shoulders.

I slid up along her body, her hand reaching down to guide me inside her. She raised her legs, wrapping them around my thighs, locking me inside her. I moved slowly in and out, I could feel her breasts rubbing against my chest and she pulled my face down so we could kiss. The lovemaking was gentle, slow, and incredibly sensual, when she came, she gripped my shoulders tightly and whimpered softly. I kept moving slowly in and out, a slow, steady rhythm, and as my own orgasm approached, I increased my speed. I groaned softly as I came inside her, Cathy held me tightly, kissing me on the lips.

“That was just what I needed,” she sighed as I rolled off her.

“It’s always very lovely with you,” I replied. “Right from our first time.”

“Can you imagine, that’s almost twenty-one years ago,” she said. “So much has happened since then, so many years have gone past, but I can still remember every aspect of that evening.”

I snuggled up behind her, my hand on her soft breast, and we drifted off to sleep.

I woke up in the morning, got out of bed without disturbing Cathy, had my shower and got dressed, putting on my suit for the summit meeting. I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, made some coffee, and just as I was getting some breakfast cereal, Cathy came down.

“You should have woken me,” she said. “I would have loved to have made you breakfast, Will.”

“Sorry, maybe over the next few days we can have breakfast together,” I said. “You did look so cute sleeping there though.”

“You didn’t think of taking advantage of me?”

“The thought did cross my mind...”

“That can be something for you to look forward to when you get back this afternoon,” she said.

We had our breakfast together – Cathy poured me a glass of pineapple juice; she had remembered what I liked – then I finished getting ready and drove across to Parliament House. I made my way up to the main cabinet room, showing my temporary pass to the house security officers. I was one of the first to arrive, Paul Keating was already there, with John Howard. Paul greeted me, shaking my hand, and introduced me to Howard.

“John, I would like you to meet Professor Will Morris, who is one of my closest advisors,” he said. “Will, John Howard.”

“I know of Professor Morris, at least by reputation,” John Howard said, shaking my hand. “At least, I know of his musical abilities, and I must say, Professor Morris, I was impressed by your latest album.”

“Please, call me Will, I don’t even ask my students to call my professor,” I said. “I’m glad you liked the album; we had a lot of fun performing and recording it.”

Over the next fifteen minutes the rest of the attendees arrived, key members of the Federal Government and Opposition, all State Premiers and their key ministers, and the Chief Ministers of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. We took our seats, Paul had me sit between him and Gareth Evans; Kim Beazley (the deputy PM) was on his other side, next to John Howard, then Tim Fischer, the leader of the National Party, and deputy opposition leader. I knew most of the delegates, particularly those from NSW, but other states by sight.

Paul called the meeting to order, welcoming everyone here, reminding people that we were attempting to address a very sombre event in the country’s history, and he hoped we could all work together to come up with some ways to prevent such an event happening again in the future.

“It goes without saying that I expect everyone to show courtesy and respect to all attendees; we may have differing political views, but we are all charged with working on solutions that can move this country forward,” he said. “I’m sure you all know that John Howard and I have frequent disagreements, but we are determined to put our differences behind us, treat each other with respect to work together. In fact, it was only an hour after I became aware of the tragic events in Port Arthur that I called John and said to him this is something that needs to transcend political considerations and parties, and would he be willing to work with me to come up with a bipartisan solution. He immediately agreed and committed the Federal opposition to working side by side with my government.

“Now, due to the nature of our constitution and the federal structure of the country, much of any legislative action will be the responsibility of all States and Territories; the Federal Government has limited powers to regulate firearms and gun ownership. I’m confident that we can all work together to come up with real solutions.

“Now, I’m sure you all probably know each other, except for the person on my right. Professor Will Morris is a long-time close personal advisor to me and my government, I’ve relied on his perception and ideas over many years. And, if I can add, he’s also been the victim of gun violence; several years ago, a disgruntled ex-student of his burst into his lecture room one day, and fired several shots at him, fortunately only wounding him in the leg. But I’m sure we will all welcome his astute comments and views.

“Now, I will hand things over to the opposition leader for his opening remarks, thank you, John.”

John thanked Paul for organizing the summit and spoke about his revulsion at the massacre at Port Arthur, saying that such actions were completely out of character with the Australian way of life, and the values that we cherish in this country.

“I do not want Australia to go down the American path. There are some things about America I admire and there are some things I don’t. And one of the things I don’t admire about America is their ... slavish love of guns. They’re evil,” he said.

“Be that as it may, John,” Rob Borbidge, the Premier of Queensland said, “they are a necessity, a way of life for much of rural Australia. Our farmers need them to keep feral animals at bay.”

“While that is true, Rob,” Jeff Kennett, the Premier of Victoria said, “I don’t think one really needs military grade rapid fire weapons to shoot a few rabbits or foxes. In fact, I can’t see any justification for ordinary civilians to have access to these military grade weapons. And before anyone makes the comment that I have no idea what I’m talking about with these weapons, I will remind you that I had two years’ service in the Royal Australian Regiment in Malaysia and Singapore, and I was trained and qualified in how to safely use the weapons that Bryant used. They are not the sort of rifles one would take out hunting.”

There were various comments from those in the room about their military service, hunting experience and so on, until Paul called a halt to those discussions.

“As interesting as all of that is,” he said, “we are getting off the topic. I would like to call on Professor Morris to outline a few discussion points that we may want to cover. Over to you, Will.”

I stood up and moved across to where a whiteboard had been set up.

“What we need to do is address several issues,” I said, and started to write some dot points on the board.

“The first is to define a way of categorizing different groups of weapons, so that it’s easier to make broad restrictions or licensing requirements. At the National Committee on Violence in 1988, six categories of firearms were defined, and that’s probably a good place to start.

“Secondly, licensing; a person would have to demonstrate a valid reason to have a firearm license. There could be broad categories, like hunting, sport shooting, pest control, farmers, plus licenses for firearms dealers and repairers. Based on the person’s need, they can be licensed for one or more category of firearm.

“Thirdly, a national register, matching firearms with licensees.

“Fourthly, determine who should not be allowed to hold a license, such as convicted felons, those with a history of mental illness, and anyone with a domestic violence injunction ordered by a court against them.

“Needless to say, this will require coordinated legislative action from every state and territory, laws must be consistent across every administration.”

That pretty much set the tone for the remainder of the morning’s discussion, by lunchtime there was agreement on the six categories of firearms, and those people who should not be issued a license. When we broke for lunch, I gave Lisa a quick call, to let her know how the summit was going, and to tell her about Cathy.

“You know she said if she wasn’t working here in Canberra, she would want to move in with us,” I said, once we had exchanged pleasantries and told each other how our day was going. “I think she’s desperately lonely, and really needs some decent companionship.”

“You think I don’t know that?” she said to me. “I really feel sorry for her, she’s been treated so shabbily by her ex and his dragon mother, she didn’t deserve that, with them taking custody of her kids. If ever she decided to move back to Sydney, I would love to have her living with us, what would you like?”

“I think I would like that, too,” I said. “But while ever Labor is in power, and Paul Keating is PM, she won’t leave Canberra, she’s a key part of his leadership team. She loves her job too much to give it up, which is understandable, she’s doing what she had dreamt about when we were back in High School.”

“You don’t think that would piss Lori or Megan off, once they found out you were back with Cathy?”

“I can’t live my life worrying what either of them might think,” I said. “It’s clear I no longer mean anything to them, so whatever they think of what I do, that’s not something I can concern myself about.”

“So, you think you are really over the two of them?” she asked.

“After fifteen years? I should be! Now, I must get back to the summit, have some lunch before the afternoon session starts. Have a great day, honey, I love you.”

“Love you too – take care.”

At lunch, which was served in one of the private dining rooms in the executive wing of the building, I sat at a table with others – Kate Carnell, the Chief Minister of the ACT, Dean Brown, the South Australian Premier, Richard Court, the Western Australian Premier, and some of their staff.

“What’s this I heard about you being shot while you were giving a lecture?” Richard Court asked me. “That must be some pretty tough class you teach!”

I told the others the full story, about how Ross O’Connell had been caught leading a cheating scheme, and subsequently expelled from the course. When I told them that the belief was that the now-deceased Labor right wing enforcer, Tom Domican, was behind it, as a convenient means to get me out of the way, they all raised their eyebrows.