Think big but make it exciting

All right fine. I eat muesli. Worse, I like it. I also ride a bike and walk a lot. In fact the only habit on Paul Keating's to-loathe list that I don't have is sandal-wearing - and only because I prefer thongs. Then again, maybe if Paul got a bit more fibre and a lot more exercise, he wouldn't behave quite so much like an ageing monarch.

Last week's little spat between Keating and the Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, was mysterious, at the time. Was ''sandal-wearing, muesli-chewing, bike-riding pedestrians'' really the best invective Keating could summon? Was he unwell?

And why was this long-chain insult aimed not at Hazzard, as new Barangaroo boss and natural political foe, but at Clover Moore, who, having spat her own Barangaroo dummy months back, was already grazing well outside the tent?

None of it made sense, especially since all Clover had done was table an 11,000-signature petition to generate parliamentary debate. I mean, so what, actually? It's not like Parliament has jurisdiction here. Even if it did, even if Parliament could pass a Barangaroo Act that miraculously rewrought the last decade, has anything in NSW, ever, been improved by parliamentary debate?

And in any case, Clover's petition attacked one end of the development - the bristling Lend Lease towers on Barangaroo South - while Keating's baby was the faux-natural headland at the far, other end of the site.