Keen on Kevin
IF you’ll pardon the image, Adelaide’s freshly minted Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood is bending over backwards to befriend the Rann government, which has a history of animosity towards the Adelaide City Council.
Strewth
Chill wind
WHEN independent Northern Territory MP Alison Anderson came to Sydney this week to talk about the flaws in education and employment schemes in remote Aboriginal communities, it didn’t seem unreasonable to expect it would be a bit light on for laughs.
Backward move
IT may be dead, buried and cremated (if we may borrow an Abbottism), but the ghost of “moving forwards” so haunts the ALP it is taking radical action to undo the damage.
Flight of fancy
AT a press conference in Canberra yesterday, Greens leader Bob Brown began his statement on the anti-siphoning list of televised sport with a homily about a pair of magpies.
Howes alarm
ON the question of whether Paul Howes has it in for Kevin Rudd, it may be safely said the science is settled.
This is serious
JUST like Craig Emerson and Malcolm Turnbull, Kate Ellis has a certain sparkle in the eye and a smile that can make you feel like spring has arrived. (Yes, that is also a hint to the tardy weather gods.)
Not worth wait
IF there’s one thing more valuable right now than a Commonwealth Bank-enhanced mortgage repayment, it’s a word (or two) from bank chief Ralph Norris.
The art of offence
WOULD Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd approve of the political stunts of his nephew Van Rudd?
Cup half full
AFTER years of standing at the crucial hour before a TV with a plastic beaker of tepid bubbles, or crammed into the Hieronymus Bosch tableau of a nearby drinking establishment, Strewth decided yesterday to tackle the big question: Does the Melbourne Cup really stop the nation?
Scandal hunt
OPPOSITION climate action spokesman Greg Hunt may get a bit fired up sometimes in parliament, but there’s a time and a place.
Senators’ tryout
WHEN Strewth tried to end The 7.30 Report interregnum recently, our suggested replacements for Kerry O’Brien were nothing if not wide-ranging and constructive.
A closed book
GREENS leader Bob Brown has revealed a hitherto hidden layer of cynicism, a characteristic that shocks Strewth, who always thinks of the old greenie as an avuncular and upbeat pollie.
Soft shoe shuffle
WE had a lovely morning watching John “There was something in the air that night, ’twas a shoe in flight” Howard speaking at the launch of Lazarus Rising (an event to which Jeff Kennett and Peter Costello appeared to have lost their invitations).
A three-pointer
WHEN “Moving forward” was killed in action during the 2010 campaign, Strewth was engulfed by an episode of grief that lasted until someone noticed we were actually in the grip of hysteria and slapped us back into reality.
Cake is for kids
SOME of us like to kick off our birthdays with, say, cake in bed, or at least cake near bed.
Nice guy, RIP
JUST when you were wondering whether the new paradigm had definitively snuffed it, along come Craig Emerson and Scott Morrison like a pair of coroners brandishing the death certificate.
Love, actually
FOR two weeks every northern summer, the Russian city of St Petersburg is illuminated by the White Nights, an opaline twilight that marries eerie beauty with mass insomnia.
Not worth a fig
A FEW things happened while this Strewth correspondent was off wandering about in the desert (not a metaphor), but few snagged our attention quite as emphatically as last week’s Strewth report about an ad revealing the role of yoghurt in Kevin Rudd’s grip on power.
It’s a miracle!
TINY Penola (population about 1200) where Mary MacKillop founded her order of nuns is a friendly enough place.
She said, he said
TRADE magazine CommsDay reported on Tuesday that Westpac boss Gail Kelly had criticised the National Broadband Network as “yesterday’s technology” and questioned the cost of the rollout.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/strewth/page/118