Former premier Geoff Gallop made a brief reappearance on the political scene this week, emerging at Federal Parliament to greet his old Oxford University chum, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. While in Canberra, Mr Blair made a rare address to a joint sitting of parliament, defending the military deployment to Iraq and describing the battle against Islamic extremists as "utterly decisive". Dr Gallop is currently considering his options for life outside of politics but the tip is he will return to academia.