Big (carbon) foot

FELLOW Earthians, former Greens leader and senator Bob Brown has penned an epistle to his apostles.

FELLOW Earthians, former Greens leader and senator Bob Brown has penned an epistle to his apostles. In his book, printed on paper, Brown pooh-poohs “the high priests of Materialism (who) warn that nothing so dreadful awaits us as an economic downturn ... (and) the punishment of unemployment” and implores us to instead “tighten our belts”. Brown leads by example, revealing he restricted himself to a mere 2000 flights in 18 years.

All in the family

FORMER copper and radio host Michael Smith was scratching his head yesterday over a piece on rogue cartoonist Larry Pickering’s blog suggesting Smith was too close to ‘‘ambushed’’ Heath Service Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson. Smith said the idea the pair were anything other than good friends was “ludicrous — I’ve always said we’re very close and if you want me to say how close, I’ll say very close”. Smith called back to say Jackson would today be hosting a birthday party for his eight-year-old son Hugh “and present will be Jackson’s fiance Michael Lawler, my mum, my former wife, two of my sisters and my children — so if it is what Pickering thinks it is, then there’s a hell of a lot of us in it”.

Gold-plated journo

JONATHAN Holmes in The Age this week claimed Henry Ergas was pretending that the Renewable Energy Target was pushing up power prices when in fact it was Labor premiers Peter Beattie and Bob Carr’s decision to “gold-plate” poles and wires. As Holmes should know, that is a sunk cost, rather like the money that was spent paying him $187,380 year to do the ABC’s 15-minute-a-week, “gold plated” Media Watch program. Power transmitters are no more likely to return the money than Holmes. The RET, however, is an ongoing waste. Insiders say Dick Warbuton’s panel will report on the RET in two weeks and Environment Minister Greg Hunt will release it four to six weeks later.

Attack and defence

DOUGHTY Defence Minister David Johnston’s trusty adviser went on the attack yesterday, unhappy to see Niki Savva describe Defence as a “graveyard” this week. OK, but predecessor Stephen Smith retired from parliament, John Faulkner and Joel Fitzgibbon went to the backbench and Brendan Nelson went to lead the opposition. True, they’re not dead. Like Monty Python’s parrot, just resting.

That sinking feeling

TOUTING his business acumen on Wednesday, Clive Palmer attacked the government, calling for a “strategy for growth”. Given the last BRW Rich Listreported Palmer’s net worth fell from $2.2 billion to $1.2bn in a year, his own growth strategy could be interesting. With his sinking fortunes, Palmer doesn’t need to build a Titanic — he is one.