I'm not saying Crikey.

Ok, I don't know how to say this without sounding like a total bitch, but the simple fact is that I am just not distraught and shocked that Steve Irwin is dead.

Yes, it is sad, but I am not terribly upset by the news. Nor am I surprised. If he had been killed whilst filing his tax return, or folding his laundry, perhaps. But the man's life work had put him in dangerous situations time and time again. Saying that I am surprised he was killed by a wild animal is like saying I am surprised a pack-a-day smoker eventually died of lung cancer.

Do I feel sad for his wife and kids? Of course, my heart aches immensely for anyone who loses their soulmate, and any child that loses a parent. That goes without saying.

However the fact is that I never watched his shows, went to his wildlife park, or watched any of his international interviews. And although he was famous, I would never have called him a National Icon. In fact, more often than not he has been declared by public opinion in Australia as more of a National Outrage than an Icon. Taking his one month old son into the crocodile enclosure during feeding time in 2004, was an even so publicly despised and ridiculed it rivaled the Michael Jackson-Baby-Over-The-Balcony event in terms of questionable child abuse. So much so that Australian laws were changed in direct response to the event and the Queensland Government released new rules prohibiting children and any untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures. This was just one of the many public scandals, and within the zoological community he was widely known as a careless risk-taker.

Yet now that he has died, there is suddenly an out-pouring of Princess Diana-like public grieving, selective amnesia declaring him a "lovable larrikin" and even a tribute song. In light of past public opinion, the reaction to Irwin's death stinks of hypocrisy.

Just because the man is dead does not mean I am going to suddenly pretend that I liked him. In truth, his personality irritated me a lot. Just because I agree he had raised the profile of native Australian animals worldwide, does not mean that I think he always did it the best or most humane way he could have. And just because he died in a freak accident does not mean that I consider him to be a tragic hero. The man died doing what he loved, what he had exposed himself and his family to for many years, and what he got paid a lot of money to do.

The death of anyone is sad, but I never knew the guy personally, and I never really liked his public persona either. I can't pretend that I did, just because I'm an Aussie too.

In truth I am more upset over the death this week of my uncle, Ken Hubbard - a man who, after 25-odd years of self-imposed isolation and alcoholism, was just getting to know his family again and getting his life back on track. He died, alone in his bed, and wasn't found for days. Now that's tragic.