Menu moment for sous vide at dinner for Scott Morrison and Joko Widodo

Guess what was on the menu at the official luncheon thrown by Scott Morrison for Indonesian President Joko Widodo?

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Parliament House in Canberra. (AAP Image/Rick Rycroft, AP Pool)

In a coincidence we couldn’t make up, guess what was on the menu at the official luncheon thrown by Scott Morrison for Indonesian President Joko Widodo? “Sous Vide Corn Fed Chicken” (with an aromatic bone broth, mushrooms, mash and Meredith Dairy Goats cheese). Made by the Prime Minister himself with the Lodge’s taxpayer-funded $1899 professional Polyscience Sous Vide machine, we wonder? One foodie attendee’s review: “Tastes like poached chicken.”

Bread break

Spotted: Bob Katter and a staff member tearing out of the formal sit-down towards Aussies cafe, where he ordered four pieces of plain white bread and butter for lunch.

Linguistically gifted

Anthony Albanese proudly presented a decorative bowl to Joko, which he’d bought from a shop in the fire-affected NSW town of Mogo. But some Labor MPs were less than impressed that their leader chose to pull the gift out of a brown paper bag. “Typical Labor. We do love a brown paper bag. At least it wasn’t from Aldi,” one MP told us, tongue in cheek. But it was Chris Bowen in his batik shirt who walked away the most chuffed with his brief Jokowi interaction. We hear the President complimented Bowen’s flawless fluency in Indonesian.

Catch of the day

If you see something, say something. That’s the warning Parliament House has given all politicians and staff as it turns up the heat on email hackers. Four times a year the Morrison government will send out suspicious-looking emails that simulate a cyber ­attack to see whether anyone accidentally clicks the bait. It sounds extreme, but last February a “sophisticated state actor” was responsible for multiple attacks­ on Parliament House’s computer network and the Liberal, Labor and Nationals parties. According to Strewth’s spies, the so-called Phishing Awareness Education has begun. We saw one grammatically questionable email that hit APH’s inboxes on Monday. It read: “Your mailbox has exceeded storage limit which is 20gB as set by your administrator, you currently running on 20.9GB, To re-valiidate your mailbox Click here to increase youre mailbox size or you lose your account within 24 hours.” But there’s one catch: you can’t report the dodgy email on a smartphone. Pollies and staff need to be using Microsoft Outlook on a desktop computer (which, as we’ve reported before, use Office 2007 and no longer allow updates) to label it problematic and be rewarded with a pop-up that says: “Good job! Thank you for staying vigilant!” Anyone who clicks the link is shown a cartoo­n explaining how to avoid making the same mistake in future. We wonder how many people fell for it. Hopefully, we’ll get a number for you during Senate estimates next month.

Doling out

Northern Territory Country Liberal senator Sam McMahon tweeted on Monday: “Excellent mews from Senator Ruxtin this morning.” What from who? Six hours later McMahon updated her tweet with the correctly spelled Liberal senator Anne Ruston. And it has been an impressive fortnight from the Social Services Minister. On January 27 she announced a welfare crackdown to save the budget $2.1bn. By 6.30am on Monday, her office had proclaimed: “The proportion of working-age Australians receiving welfare benefits has fallen to its lowest level in more than 30 years.”

Bandt’s hidden talent

We watched it so you didn’t have to. The Greens released a nearly six-minute video called Question Time with Adam Bandt. What did he want to be as a kid? A geologist. Favourite movie? Frozen 2, after taking daughters Wren (4) and Elke (3) to see it. How does he take his coffee? “Long black with a bit of hot milk on the side. So, sorry to disappoint that it’s not a soy latte.” Guilty pleasure? Reality TV show Gogglebox. New Year’s resolution? To run more. Friday night go-to dinner? Curry takeaway. What would he take to a desert island? Books, hammock and food. Bravest thing he has done? Packed up after finishing uni in Perth and moved to Melbourne. Who would he want to debate on Q&A? Morrison. Hidden talent? “I’ve got a hidden mediocre talent. If I had a sliding-doors moment or some alternative career I probably would be some kind of German house DJ. Whether it’s a hidden talent, you’d have to ask all the people at the house who roll their eyes when I bring out the decks.” Another wannabe DJ in parliament!

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