One of the most heart-warming aspects of the Beaconsfield mine rescue was the daily sight and sound of a top union official doing the sort of job that top union officials ought to be well and widely know for -  but aren’t.

Whatever the subtexts and hidden agendas Australian Workers Union federal secretary Bill Shorten may have had [and cynics would reckon that they were his real motivation, such have been the track records of other top union officials], he was seen there focusing on one of the union movement’s core businesses -  the working conditions of its members. Not opining fulsomely about deconstructing capitalistic society, not ranting one-sidedly about wars in far-away places or the human rights of trees, not putting in his two million Zimbo dollars’ worth about neo-colonialist meta-oppression, not pontificating a la M Rousseau on the deracination of Australia’s once noble sauvages.

No, none of that.

He kept on about the working conditions of two of his movement’s members in particular, and of their fellows more widely. And now, as Andrew Darby’s article demonstrates, there’s more of that to concentrate on, even though the journalists’ Winnebagos no longer circle the town. Shorten’s going to have to keep doing a lot of finely detailed work, most of it out of range of even the most inquisitive journo, and much of it utterly non-TV friendly.

If he sticks at it -  and so far, we’ve had not indication that he won’t -  he’ll be doing the job his members expect him to do.

Leonard Colquhoun VIEU member no 5**5