"By doctoring his speech and making such changes without any acknowledgement Minister Garrett shows that he is in danger of losing that respect."

I think the minister lost the respect of the public some time ago. An aging rock star who is the next-to-penultimate latte-leftie (after Cate Blanchett) as Minister of the Crown in a Government full of lawyerly sharks? Had to end in tears.

As you say, however, dishonesty and deceitfulness are not well-regarded in politicians yet they seem to be widely present. Let's also not forget that some bunch of dills somewhere had to vote for each MP. We get what we deserve.

Antiseptic,
The trouble is, people often decide to vote along party lines rather than by evaluating each politicians credential, and even when voters evaluate candidates credentials there is no knowing how the successful candidate will be fitted into a the ruling party. Garrett is a classic example - used mostly as Rudd's whipping boy.

So many people get worked up about school funding. Rich school, poor school blah blah blah. A much easier solution is to fund the parents rather than the school. Of course no one would know who got what and Peter Garrett would have nothing to talk about.

Parents could pay their school fees and apply for a refund from Centrelink. They could use criteria similar to the Family Tax Benefits to decide who gets what. It would save us from this endless drivel about funding private schools and it would be vastly fairer.