Diehard

Watching Wilson Tuckey foaming at the mouth over the apology to the stolen generations reminded me of the sorry (excuse the pun) record of this excuse for a parliamentarian.

He has been described in the past by his colleagues - including the ex-Prime Minister - as a a "fool" and "an embarrassment to his colleagues".

But Wilson Tuckey still became a federal minister in the Howard government.

His behaviour is not surprising given that he used to believe that belting someone with a piece of 100 amp cable is OK. For this action in 1967 he was convicted of assault. The fact that this person was aboriginal and was being held down at the time is revealing in the context of Wednesday's interview.

His recent form is interesting. In 2003 he tried to get his son off a traffic fine by heavying the South Australian Police Minister, Patrick Conlon, and then lying to parliament about it on more than one occasion.

He also defended James Hardie – the building products company which was embroiled in controversy over its failure to make proper reparations to pay compensation to victims of its asbestos products.

And despite the fact that he routinely sledges the National Party, it’s a fact that he ran as a Nationals candidate in the 1974 state election for the seat of Gascoyne.

Tuckey uses smear and intimidation as a matter of course, and is an exponent of the politics of hate and fear.

At least he's on the opposition benches, so his capacity to wield power is diminished.