I got to Marsden Park a little early, just in case.
But when there was no sign of the Prime Minister after 30 minutes I started wondering if my “deep throat’’ was after all a second or third rate whistleblower.
“Deep Throat’’ – for those under 30 – was the whistleblower who helped bring down US President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
He met and gave information about the break in at the Watergate Hotel to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein which eventually led to the resignation of Nixon (Check out the movie, All The President’s Men, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford).
They usually met in underground carparks and the most famous anonymous whistleblower of all history asked to be called “deep throat”.
Well, my source told me Malcolm Turnbull would be in Marsden Park at 1pm to make a big announcement.
I parked opposite the Jamaica Blue café and walked to the children’s playground area.
Next to them I noticed a group of people sitting around talking, some of whom were wearing blue T-shirts.
Ah, I thought, the blue of the Liberal Party.
Getting closer I saw that it had nothing to do with the political party whose leader was apparently coming to the heart of Campbelltown.
My fears were eased when I saw two blokes, who seemed to be talking to the side of their face.
Security detail, obviously.
They walked up and down the park, having a good look around the fenced off playground area.
Inally, an hour after my most excellent whistleblower had told me, there was movement at the station.
But emerging from the bushes were not Malcolm and his minders but the hordes of the media pack.
A fellow I took to be one of the PM’s minders told the cameramen and women to set up on a small rise adjacent to where the blue shirts were.
And then the word was passed around: He’s here.
And sure enough, the familiar white mane was easily recognisable, surrounded by security men and long handle microphones.
The PM was smiling, as he always does, and kept smiling until it was all over.
As I left I called my whistleblower to say thanks and thought of the real excitement, the buzz the Washington Post boys would have got meeting their man in the underground carpark.
♦ By the way, the Post’s man was outed later as FBI official W. Mark Felt, who lived to the ripe old age of 95. He died in 2008.
