But back in the day, at the height of his powers, Mungo was indeed a journalistic force to be reckoned with, for in 1977 he managed to predict the result of an election one-third of a century later:
- "... Win, lose or draw (a very real possibility which must be causing the incoming Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowen, the odd sleepless night)..."
- - "Malcolm's Last Joke," Nation Review, 1-7 December 1977), repub as Chapter 21 in Mungo on the Zoo Plane: Elections 1972-77 (UQ Press, 1979), p 196.
As did John Howard's former chief of staff, Grahame Morris, back in the now-expunged era of the Latham Ascendancy:
- "There is every chance after the election the Prime Minister will have to wake up every morning worrying about what Bob Katter had for breakfast."
- - Glenn Milne, Hamstrung by the minors," The Australian (6 September 2004).