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in the field which was running for election to the ministry.   None of the candidates or their supporters had lobbied me.   Perhaps my vote was not needed, or perhaps I had been simply overlooked.

      It seemed that the safe thing to do was to vote for the status quo.   After al, the existing ministry had just been involved in a record victory at the polls.   They must have somehing going for them.   )Later I was to realise that the "something" was Wran himself, and that he had carried a number of incompetent ministers on his shoulders.)

        On the morning of the caucus meeting I received a cryptic phone message from Landa, via one of his staff.   It said that he had "spoken to Brereton".

        Presumably this meant that I should vote for Laurie Brereton,   then an up-and-coming young backbencher.   This would require me to omit one of the existing ministers and no guidance was given in that regard.   I pondered on the list of ministers.

      In the afternoon, the caucus met in an ancient upstairs part of Parliament House called the Public Works Room.   It was stuffy and hot.   Most of the sixty-three men who crowded into the room were in shirtsleeves, sweating and showing the effects of a convivial meal together.   Without their coats, many of the honourable members revealed large beer guts.

        The President of the caucus, "Ned" Wade , sat on a kind of throne against he wall.   In front of him was  

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