Imagine you turned up to an exam with some notes on which you relied. Not nice or fair or honest, is it? Especially if you had been told that notes were illegal.

Well, guess what? It’s what our desperate Prime Minister did last night during the “The Great Debate” with Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. Rudd referred to his notes all the time and this created a terrible impression. He appeared unsure of himself and became boring as he tried to include every point he had ever made.

He simply would not stick to the subject and answer the specific question that had been posed. Nor could he help himself about making long lists and enumerating them with the aid of notes.

Australians feel strongly about “a fair go”. They respect people who play fairly, who play by the rules or else it’s simply not “fair dinkum” and they disapprove vehemently of being conned. Unfortunately, Rudd is not above cheating in a debate as he demonstrated last night.

On being questioned about this unethical behaviour Rudd explained that he did not know he could not rely on notes. Hard to believe isn’t it? But let’s say that he really did not know, then how come his advisers did not tell him not to cheat?

Was it because they didn’t dare correct him since he is known to be such a tyrant who baulks at advice? Or was it perhaps because his advisers did not know about the prohibition of notes because they hail from the U.S.A? You see Rudd did not think that Australian advisers were good enough for him?

He could be right.