"Black And Deep Desires", Peter?

by Alan Atwood - The Age

Peter Costello is seldom shy about listing his accomplishments: federal Treasurer since 1996; deputy Liberal leader since 1994; MHR since 1990; law graduate (with honours). But there's something in his past he seldom owns up to: it certainly isn't in his CV. He was once a cross-dresser. As he is wont to say, the public has a right to know.

I am familiar with his brief phase wearing women's clothing because I was playing dress-ups myself at the time. It was the very early 1970s; the now-Treasurer and myself, both of us teenagers, were at the same Melbourne school and had parts in an all-boys production of Macbeth. In a pair of droopy tights I was Donalbain, son of Duncan; not one of the great Shakespearean roles. A fresh-faced Peter Costello was, memorably and magnificently, Lady Macduff.

My memory, which can be faulty, has him wearing a long gown. It's a small but touching role: only a single scene, but one that ends with Lady Macduff, the Treasurer-to-be, fleeing the stage pursued by bloody murderers. A great exit for her — sorry, I mean him.

I hope Peter Costello still has a copy of the play, because I think he would find that there is much in Macbeth that is singularly relevant to his present situation and the leadership tussle engrossing the nation.

I'm not suggesting he kills the king. Far from it. But Macbeth is a play about politics; about vaulting ambition in particular — a quality the Treasurer has never lacked. Shakespeare also wrestles with the theme of a man confronting his destiny.

The Three Witches (an apt metaphor for the parliamentary press gallery) hail Macbeth as a man "that shalt be King hereafter!" For much of his parliamentary career, of course, Costello has lived with the mantle of leader-in-waiting.

Just like Macbeth, he has a problem. A big problem. He knows the king (played here by John Howard, the long-running Topol of federal politics). He is a trusted ally of the king. Toppling the king could mean committing an act of gross disloyalty, or even worse. Like Macbeth, Costello is a ditherer; a procrastinator; a man who agonises over pros and cons before acting. Lady Macbeth sums up her husband perfectly: "Thou wouldst be great,/ Are not without ambition, but without/ The illness should attend it."

That's the claim often made against Costello: he's spoiling for a fight, yet unwilling to bring it on and risk skinning his knuckles. But even Macbeth, trying to stir himself to do something, acknowledges the benefit of acting decisively: "If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well/ It were done quickly." Perhaps that's what Costello imagined he was doing this week, confirming the story about a 1994 meeting and the Ian McLachlan memo. You see, he said, there was a deal.

But that's all he did: say things. Steeling himself, Macbeth made his move. Costello, meanwhile, called a news conference. Several of them, in fact. The one yesterday morning loomed as his chance to act decisively. Toss it in. Move to the back bench. Spit the dummy. Call for a vote.

But what did he do? He said more things. Committed himself to the long-term. We'd heard it all before: "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,/ To the last syllable of recorded time."

What did he actually say yesterday? Just a lot of words, signifying nothing much at all. There was sound, but no fury. OK, he feels let down, possibly even betrayed. That's not uncommon in politics. People say one thing and do another. As Shakespeare put it almost exactly 400 years ago, "There's no art/ To find the mind's construction in the face:/ He was a gentleman on whom I built/ An absolute trust."

So says King Duncan of the executed Thane of Cawdor. So might Costello have talked of Howard to his closest allies: I trusted him; he's let me down. To which the non-Shakespearean response is: stuff happens; get over it. Or get on with it. He insists he's a believer in the processes of the party room. But he's shown himself unwilling to put his future in the hands of his party colleagues. Why? Because all that naked ambition could cause him to come a cropper, cast down by colleagues weary of his soliloquies.

So what now? His "black and deep desires" are well and truly out in the open. He wants to be leader. Trouble is, there already is a leader; one in no hurry to vacate the castle. In this situation, the tactic advocated by Lady Macbeth is "Look like the innocent flower/ But be the serpent under't." I'm not sure that's the Treasurer's style. He has displayed precious little venom so far. There is little more advice I can offer my former fellow thespian. Certainly not as Donalbain. My part had me running on stage after Duncan's murder, asking "What is amiss?", then doing a runner to Ireland. Not much help there. If Costello remembers his lines after all these years he'll know that Lady Macduff has some pertinent words about fears being a poor substitute for actions.

Trouble is, Costello doesn't look quite right in the role of Action Man. Even on the school stage he was Lady Macduff, not Macbeth. And it is Macbeth who asks that famous question: 'Is this a dagger which I see before me,/The handle towards my hand?"

No, Treasurer, it's just another radio reporter's microphone.


Alan Attwood is a Melbourne writer.