Five-star notion picture

AFTER federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett got to his feet in parliament yesterday to congratulate the makers of Samson & Delilah for their triumph in Cannes (the Camera d'Or, for heaven's sake!), his Opposition counterpart - the somewhat more enigmatic Steven Ciobo - also chipped in.

AFTER federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett got to his feet in parliament yesterday to congratulate the makers of Samson & Delilah for their triumph in Cannes (the Camera d'Or, for heaven's sake!), his Opposition counterpart - the somewhat more enigmatic Steven Ciobo - also chipped in.

"I have not had the privilege of seeing the film at this stage," he admitted, "but the fact that both Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, who we all know are not always in uniform agreement, both gave this film five stars in no small way underscores the significance of this film, which is considered to be a dark, poignant love story where essentially the entire story is told through pictures rather than through dialogue."

Talking through his hat

CRITICISMS made last week that Kevin Rudd was spending too much time in hard hats seem to have been working away at the prime ministerial brain. Firing away at the Coalition yesterday on the subject of infrastructure, social housing and the like, Rudd came out with the line: "What those opposite in their hard of hats say is, 'Let the free market rip."' After some boisterous but helpful points were made by Opposition members, Rudd corrected himself. "Heart of hearts. I think those opposite are also challenged in terms of their hearing."

Madden cops a spray

ASKED in 2006 to nominate what he would abolish from Melbourne life, Liberal leader Ted Baillieu answered succinctly: "Graffiti. It brings us all down, it's misery-making." How time flies. Yesterday, Baillieu's office emailed journalists to highlight some western suburbs artwork calling for the departure of Planning Minister Justin Madden. Or, as the graffiti artist preferred to phrase it: "Sack Madden, enemy of the west!"

Infectious humour

SOUTH Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley is in New York, suffering from a cold as he prepares to fly home tomorrow. Given the recent cases of swine flu linked to the Big Apple, Foley is worried he may have to attend next week's state budget lock-up with a precautionary face mask. "They are checking people closely coming back in from New York and I have a cold," he said. "I am going to hold my breath on the plane. Maybe I will go to the budget lock-up with a face mask on, rip it off and threaten to give journalists a dose of swine flu. I will infect the entire press corps; that has some merit to it." Cue the sound of nervous laughter.

Building a reputation

A SURVEY in England has found that journalists constitute the hardest drinking profession in the land. If you want to see how you measure up, the average Blighty hack puts away a weekly average of 19 pints of beer. Luckily, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has stopped the all but inevitable spotlight from falling on their Australian colleagues by focusing instead on the travails of builders. According to a study, 66 per cent of Queensland construction workers are overweight or obese, which terrifyingly/reassuringly enough is just a tad worse than the state average of 61 per cent. Booze is a different story, with 64 per cent drinking at "risky or high-risk" levels, compared with 13 per cent. Fear not, construction workers - a Government taskforce is coming to the rescue. Builders also show an average of 79 per cent more crack than the average (estimate from Strewth laboratories) but there's no need for alarm.

Check-in at recession

JAMES Packer wasn't at yesterday's naming ceremony for the third hotel at his Melbourne Crown casino, but he may be spitting chips about the prospect of opening Australia's largest hotel into the most oversupplied five-star hotel market since the last recession. Melbourne's luxury hotel market isn't as bad as Sydney's, but 3000 extra rooms isn't helping. Packer's new $300 million Crown Metropol won't be ready until early next year but will pack 658 rooms and Gordon Ramsay's first Australian restaurant. When it's completed, the Crown complex will have about 1600 hotel rooms. Hopefully, the recession will by then be justa memory. Cough.

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