I realised upon hearing it that it is quite confronting to listen as a sportsperson who has been blessed with so much talent frankly admit that he has no love of the game. I am sure there must be other sports “stars” who feel this way but you don’t hear any of them come out and say it. It just doesn’t seem fair or right to the rest of us that someone could have the talent but not the passion.

If this was Bernard being honest, I’d applaud him. But I’m not convinced. I can’t help but think it’s a line he will continue to hide behind to excuse his under-achievement for years to come. But only Bernard knows the answer to that. And even if he were able to fool the rest of us, he will one day realise he cannot fool himself.

I wanted to be angry at him when he admitted that playing tennis was “just a job”, but I had to concede that many people feel that way. Not that many of us would turn up to work if there was not some financial reward for doing so. That’s not to say we hate out jobs but aren’t most of us, like Bernard, “trapped” by the need to earn an income? It just so happens that his income is considerably more than the average punter will ever earn, and he seems to rather enjoy rubbing our faces in that.

There were times in the interview where Bernard showed just how out of touch he is with the real world. His comments about tennis being “hard graft” made me laugh out loud. And this from a bloke who admitted over his career his “effort” had averaged around 50 per cent. Hard graft is working 50 hours a week just to put food on the table. Young Mr Tomic is in no position to tell anyone about “hard graft”.

But Bernard was intent on telling us all how much money he has, as if that somehow is a good definition of a person. He certainly thinks having a lot of money makes him better than those who don’t. Those people of course include the silly mugs who have paid good money for tickets to watch him play. Having told fans not to bother anymore, I really hope they take his advice. 

After a police car was rammed and an officer injured last week, Daniel Andrews has still failed to strengthen our laws and follow the lead of the Liberal Nationals. In June this year, the Liberal Nationals' private members bill, the Crimes Amendment (Ramming of Police Vehicles) Bill 2017 was introduced in the Legislative Council.

Daniel Andrews should get a move on, and support this bill so it can be passed before any more of our hardworking police officers are seriously injured or killed. In the 2015/2016 financial year, 14 officers were hurt as a result of a police vehicle ramming and at this rate it is only a matter of time before someone is killed. The number of police vehicles rammed has more than tripled under Daniel Andrews, increasing from 30 in 2013/2014 to 103 in 2015/2016 and to more than 117 so far in 2016/2017.

Current penalties are failing to deliver the deterrence needed. As Police Association Secretary, Wayne Gatt, has said: “Legislative amendment is needed now to send the strongest possible message to offenders that if you threaten or assault a police officer, or engage in behaviour like this then you are going to have plenty of time to reflect on it from a prison cell.”

The Liberal-Nationals bill proposes the specific new offence of ramming a police car accompanied by a mandatory minimum jail sentence of two years to ensure there is a strong deterrent to would be offenders.

Our legislation also provides that the sentence is to be served cumulatively and not concurrently so there is a strong message of deterrence. Our dedicated and hardworking police are under attack like never before. As legislators the least we can do is provide them the support they need.