For political groupies, Barrie Cassidy’s last episode of Insiders on the ABC was reason to look both backwards and forwards.

Looking back, Insiders ran under Cassidy for 18 years. Someone born on the same day as the first programme will in a few weeks be old enough to vote. Bob Hawke’s press secretary he may have been (and his increasing craggy visage has come to rival Hawkie’s own), but Cassidy to his great credit was invariably even-handed in his treatment of political issues of the day and his interviewees, whatever their political colour.