Ball keeps rolling in unending Midwinter night’s dream

It’s been another week where the leaks have kept the nation’s media landscape well-irrigated.

Laurie Oakes on Twitter yesterday:

Cormann allegation that Midwinter Ball material came from Shorten to damage Turnbull is rubbish. Ditto suggestion it came from PM to show he’s not obsequious re President, as might have appeared at NY meeting.

Pauline Hanson on Twitter yesterday:

Those politicians & press having a go at Turnbull for cracking a joke are the same wankers killing Australia’s larrikin spirit.

ABC’s Media Watch, May 12, 2003:

Pauline Hanson is suing the ABC for $1.75 million for playing the Pauline Pantsdown spoof I’m a Backdoor Man.

Hanson on Twitter yesterday:

I notice no one leaked Shorten’s speech. Listening to it once was bad enough so if you have a copy do us all a favour & sit on it.

Kevin Rudd on Twitter yesterday:

I see Turnbull is having fun at the Mid Winter Ball again. #FBF (Flashback Friday) Last time he had so much fun at the Ball was Utegate.

Memory lane. From James Jeffrey’s Sketch in The Australian yesterday:

The last time Turnbull generated this level of excitement via a Midwinter Ball leak was in 2009. He was opposition leader then and passed some of his evening by heavying a guest at a neighbouring table: Kevin Rudd’s economics adviser Andrew Charlton. The subject of this unsolicited chat was the OzCar scheme, which enjoyed greater fame as Utegate. As you will recall, this did not pan out well for Turnbull Leadership Version 1.0 … It was quite the night. One of Sophie Mirabella’s new staff members went on a grope-a-thon so extensive and so efficient it’s amazing the Productivity Commission didn’t have a chat with him. In balls past, Rudd has delivered two speeches — one of which enjoys a niche fame for its humour nullius approach, and one that united the disparate themes of China and rodent-copulation.

The Sydney Morning Herald website yesterday:

ABC Radio has gone into delayed damage control following presenter Red Symons’ offensive remarks to a fellow broadcaster. The former Hey Hey It’s Saturday star, who hosts ABC Radio Melbourne’s Breakfast slot, came under fire over an interview with ABC Radio podcaster Beverley Wang, in which he asked the presenter if she was “yellow” and “What’s the deal with Asians?”

Damn these off-the-record leaks. Fellow ABC presenter Jonathan Green on Twitter yesterday:

I say this as a friend of Red Symons: this is audio he never imagined would see the light of day. Ugly, but in its way private. I’m uneasy.

On FiveAA on Wednesday:

Host: This meeting yesterday of the Coalition partyroom has been described as a bitter and personal meeting. Tony Abbott was apparently told to stop interrupting and to show some respect. There were about 20 MPs who spoke out quite forcefully against the Finkel energy review. Is the clean energy target dead in the water?

Christopher Pyne: Well, I was at the meeting and I can tell you that the media characterisation of it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the reality of it. It was a very sensible and serious discussion about energy …

Laura Tingle in The Australian Financial Review yesterday:

In front of appalled colleagues, including a number of cabinet ministers, Abbott persisted with a stream of unpleasant abuse directed at (Craig) Laundy. This was after the MP had responded to his first interjection by noting that, while he didn’t agree with anything Abbott said, he had politely listened to him put his position at great length and expected the same courtesy. According to a number of sources, Abbott then invited Laundy to “go f..k yourself”.