When told by our veteran journalist Rob Crawford he was chasing a story about Defence banning sailors from marching to the Greenwell Point dawn service because of safety fears, I thought, "This must be a hoax." Like everyone else, I wondered how people trained to fight wars could be deemed to face workplace risk by marching along a well-lit street in a sleepy seaside village.
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Like a terrier, Robert wrestled confirmation from Defence and broke the story. It quickly went national after being shared widely on social media. As expected, it provoked outrage, and was even mentioned in the federal parliament on its last sitting day before the election was called. Before the senate estimates hearing, an ashen faced Chief of Navy confirmed the march had been called off over fears of "slippage" but would, after a review of "safety mitigation", go ahead.
Commonsense prevailed after we revealed the absurdity.
Of course, the other big story this week was the calling of the federal election. At the official opening of Katrina Hodgkinson's campaign office in Berry Street, outgoing Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis and a strong showing of Liberals, Joanna Gash among them, were there to show their support.
Meanwhile, independent candidate Grant Schultz ended months of speculation, saying he would not do any preference deals, leaving that decision to voters.
The good news story of the week was the return of the wedding ring lost during the ceremony at Kiama. A big shout out to man with the metal detector who came to the rescue!
