Hasn’t the Health Minister got better things to do? Last week Michael Wooldridge personally rang a man who had faxed in an abusive complaint about the minister’s standard form letter explaining changes to the health-insurance system. It began, “”Dear Older Australian . . . .”. Paul Harley-Green, a young 71-year-old, took objection, referring to Dr Wooldridge as an egomaniac and “”fartface”. He also phoned Dr Wooldridge’s office and, according to Dr Wooldridge, was abusive to a female member of staff.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Wooldridge, telephoned Mr Harley-Green. He was in the shower. His wife answered. Dr Wooldridge dictated a message through her to Mr Harley-Green that Mr Harley-green was “”a rude, f…ing, nitwit loser”.
Mr Wooldridge issued a statement yesterday about the incident. He did not deny The Sydney Morning Herald report. He said that police had been called on previous occasions over what he called Mr Harley-Green’s harassment of politicians.
Anyone in a newspaper office knows about persistent, rude people like Mr Harley-Green. They are an occupational hazard. Why bother taking them on, especially if you are a federal minister running a budget of billions of dollars? And why direct your anger in rude language through Mrs Harley-Green? Poor woman, hasn’t she got enough to put with — given the rudeness of her husband? She shouldn’t have to cop an abusive Minister as well.
There are other ways to deal with rude people. If the rudeness is in writing, throw it in the bin. If the rudeness is over the phone, don’t hang up, just put the phone aside on the desk until the rude person realises with embarrassment that they have been bellowing in ether.
In any event, Dr Wooldridge, you have more important things to do – like attend to the nation’s health system.