In what I hope will become known as the very late winter of the Howard era, the people who currently govern Australia have adopted an unusual approach to the question of responsibility.

These days, it seems politicians need never ensure that information they make public is, in fact, true.

There is no suggestion that the politician need ask any questions at all. Quite the contrary, as the Prime Minister pointed out during the Heffernan Pedophile allegations: he is "not a Detective."

As a result, if the information turns out to be untrue, the politician can say: "I didn't know because no one told me."

The story is much the same when it comes to moral leadership.

Right now in Australia too many people in positions of responsibility steadfastly refuse to take responsibility for their actions (or, indeed, their inaction.)

To rely on excuses like: "It would have opened the floodgates to billions of dollars worth of compensation claims." Or that one was "Under strict instructions from my legal advisers - so my hands were tied." Or even that "The opinion polls showed clearly that most Australians agreed with me." Will, in time, be seen as no better a defense than "I was only following orders."

The idea that nature has the time to create humans who, by virtue of their family, racial or cultural background, are greater or lesser people, would be hilarious were it not for the many leaders who present the notion as fact.

There's right and there's wrong.

And make no mistake, while we can't always do the right thing, we know full well when we are doing the wrong thing.

Those butterflies in the stomach, the sudden need to scratch the back of your head, the involuntary yawn: they are all tell tale reminders that deep down we do know right from wrong.

Should we find that we have done the wrong thing, (even unwittingly,) we have to take responsibility for our actions. And a good place to start is to say 'sorry.'

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IMPORTANT ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A poster using 'Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry' ran in Melbourne nearly two years before I made mine.

MORE DETAILS AND PHOTOS HERE