The sneering and scoffing Laurie Oakes still passes for the Nine Network's political editor - incredibly

David Speers, Sky News political editor, is far and away the best political commentator on Australian television. It's astonishing that a relatively young man could display so much political understanding, maturity and balance in his analysis of the political arena. It is a tribute to his ability that he was chosen to interview US President George Bush and recently to preside over important political debates.

It's clear from the willingness of politicians to accept Speers' adjudication that they trust him to accurately and impartially present their position, policy or otherwise. Indeed, as a regular watcher of Sky News I would not know what David Speers' political philosophy was or what political party he supported. That's as it should be. Surely it is of the utmost importance for the viewer to hear what the politician's views actually are, be they Labor, Liberal or one of the minor parties, instead of being served up yet again the interviewer's political prejudices and personal dislikes - in many cases hatreds.

At the other end of the spectrum of political commentators is the Nine Network's Laurie Oakes who obviously thinks he is some sort of power in the state and that his scoffing and sneering about politics and politicians should be seen as oracular. None of the political commentators on the television networks did anywhere near a competent job in the recent elections. It was so painfully obvious from their continual regurgitation of the PC-class's established myths about John Howard that they agreed with them and that they were thus free from reviewing those myths or from giving a compelling analysis of the arguments for Work Choices or the Labor Party's objections to them. It was a pitiful performance that further demeans and dumbs down the political process in Australia. The Nine Network's Laurie Oakes shone in this respect.

For years Oakes has seized any and every opportunity to ridicule John Howard while for reasons of expedience, reputation and fear of departing dramatically from the gallery crowd begrudgingly acknowledged successes that could not be denied. The record is there. I dealt with Oakes's behaviour in my book The Telecard Affair: Diary of a Political Lynching, showing how manipulative and cowardly he is in his reporting and where his political sympathies lie. Oakes subscribes to the body of dogma and myth of the PC-class and hates the John Howard-type with a vengeance.

In the recent political campaign Oakes seemed to abandon all pretence and self-indulgingly focused on every stumble made by John Howard. He smugly showed vision of the Labor Party supporters who did nothing less than stalk the Prime Minister, hurling abuse or trapping him in ridicule and send-up.

There was one particularly distasteful and nasty trick perpetrated by a Labor supporter which amused Oakes no end. A young woman pretending to being an admirer sought an autograph from the Prime Minister. She requested he sign his name describing himself as what turned out to be a cartoon character from a television series - a character of ridicule, of course. Not suspecting anything from the young woman's manner he signed. Very funny for Oakes. For the rest of us, it underlined not only the hypocrisy and nastiness of the Howard-haters, but the way they regard anyone who is foolish enough to entertain the same ideas and principles.

One may be tempted to think that Oakes will be lost without John Howard to use as the butt of his sneering arrogance. Not a bit of it. Yesterday's and today's commentary on Nine's Today show demonstrated that he now has Tony Abbott to focus on. You see, being Catholic and conservative in the style of John Howard Abbott will be a constant provocation to Oakes with his flaring anti-religious bigotry. Sneering and dismissive of Tony Abbott, Oakes described him as 'a joke'. For us conservatives, the joke is Oakes, the nasty bigoted joke that heads up the Nine Network's political opinion.

There is a warning here for conservatives as to what is going to happen in the media (particularly on the Nine Network) in the coming years. It is urgent that conservatives in Australia start to organise themselves outside the political parties - as they are doing in America. One only has to look at the organising effectiveness of people like Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. With the overwhelming control in Australia of the Labor Party and the political class that keeps it in power, the media will feel justified in suppressing conservatives and distorting and misrepresenting conservatives ideals even more than in the past.