University Day Address, Wollongong, 5 May 1997

Two weeks ago tributes flowed in the wake of the resignation as Federal Director of the Liberal Party, of Andrew Robb, mastermind behind the Howard landslide at the Federal po!J of 2 March 1996. That Robb had devised and run a brilliant strategy based upon an acute understanding of the state of the psychology of the nation is not disputed. Robb knew which were the hot buttons and how to press them. He engineered an electoral victory using state of the art polling and communication techniques borrowed from the Republican Party in the United States.