Fun quota filled

THE announcement yesterday of yet another press conference by Scott Morrison had us in a state of excitement.

THE announcement yesterday of yet another press conference by Scott Morrison had us in a state of excitement. Not only is the Border Security Minister starting to show encouraging signs of crossing over into the happy realm of media tartdom, the fact that he is now cracking jokes means anything is possible. (See yesterday’s Strewth for details, including the Moz-ism “Closing the Detention Centre Revolution”.) Alas, give or take a mention of ABC presenter Jon Faine, Moz was back to regular programming yesterday, presumably reluctant to flood the market. Faced with this mirth deficit, it was left to Barnaby Joyce to do the heavy lifting, a task he accomplished with characteristic effortlessness by comparing Tony Abbott to John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill. Though perhaps Joyce has a point. As Churchill advised, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Friendly bunch

YESTERDAY it was Bill Shorten’s turn to sit in the “wink seat” opposite Jon Faine in Melbourne’s ABC 774 studio. Luckily for the Opposition Leader, the talkback callers were generally in a more accommodating frame of mind than “Gloria” and the others who’d given Abbott such a pineappling earlier in the week. For example:

Faine: “Rowan in Deer Park, morning Rowan.”

Rowan: “Morning chaps.”

Then there was John in North Caulfield:

John: “I just also want to say that the Abbott government has been wrecking the Australian economy, it’s probably been the most destructive government in Australian history …”

Faine: “Can you make a question out of it, John?”

Join the dots

IF people are still grumpy with the PM, the ABC sure as hell isn’t going to sugar the pill. On Thursday’s 7pm news bulletin, Aunty broadcast undiluted images of a T-shirt bearing the imperative “F. . k Tony Abbott” (albeit without the fig leaf of those Strewth-inserted dots) and a placard adorned with Abbott’s face and the question “Is this country fair?”, the c, the u, the n and the t in “country” helpfully coloured red. No wonder the PM is developing late onset reluctance about his family being in the public eye.

Love it while it lasts

IN a double-page spread yesterday, Fairfax’s Sydney organ ran this: “The Sydney Morning Herald’s photography exhibition Photos 1440 features prints and multimedia of the best published and unpublished work by our photographers from the past year.” Given that the SMH is, regrettably, in the process of laying waste to its photographic staff, “past” is probably the operative word.