Poopers pan party girls

THE saga of Tim Andrews and his heavily illustrated blog post on the "hottest girls" of Australian politics continues.

THE saga of Tim Andrews and his heavily illustrated blog post on the "hottest girls" of Australian politics continues.

Since Strewth revealed the former Australian Liberal Students Federation president's internet gallery of young, attractive conservative women - including Malcolm Turnbull's media adviser Elisabeth Davies, but not, to her wistfully expressed regret, Helen Coonan - it's turned out that contrary to Andrews's claims, he didn't have approval to run all the photos. Hey Tim, Pru Goward will be along presently to kick your door down. In Perth, meanwhile, Kevin Rudd floundered when hacks demanded to know which party had the hottest women. "Umm. Should you be directing that here?" he said. "Umm. Pass. Umm, I'll leave that. Mr Turnbull's in town, isn't he? I might leave that one to MrTurnbull. Ahh, I, umm, I think there are people of enormous ability in all of our political parties and I think I'll just let it rest at that. Umm. I, umm, believe we have great talent in the Australian Labor Party but in terms of the Liberal Party there are others more qualified to comment."

Walking out the door

STILL in Perth and on questions of permission, it turns out Malcolm Turnbull and local federal member Michael Keenan were wrongly given the boot from Karrinyup Shopping Centre. The proper thing had been done and approval given by centre owner AMP to charm/corner shoppers as they foraged for Weet-Bix and Tim Tams (interested in product placement? Contact Strewth; competitive rates available). Sadly no one thought to spread the word to the protocol enforcers at the centre; no one said it was always easy being a friend of business. In the meantime, Mal is on the hunt for an economist and policy adviser. According to the job ad, "applicants for the economist role must have demonstrated experience in public policy, macro and micro-economics, while experience working on federal budgetary matters will be regarded favourably". Peter Costello, come on down.

If you knew sushi

AN interesting new line of pre-packaged sushi appeared for the first time in the NSW parliamentary cafeteria yesterday. The company distributing the product, I Love Sushi, is co-owned by former Strathfield mayor Alfred Tsang. Tsang was forced to step down as mayor in 2004 after pictures were published in The Australian of him accepting $2500 in $100 notes from developer Michael Saklaoui at a restaurant in northern NSW. He was subsequently found to be corrupt by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. In 2007 he pleaded guilty to receiving a corrupt payment and was sentenced to four months' periodic detention. We're sure Tsang nurses no grudge against the powers that be, so it should be perfectly fine for pollies to tuck right in.

Liza lets loose

ON the off chance you, like Strewth, burn with curiosity as to what Liza Minnelli thinks of The Boy From Oz - the musical about her former husband Peter Allen and which also portrays her - gay magazine Queensland Pride has provided the answer. "I had no need to see it, I lived it," she told the magazine. "I was there the first time. And nobody asked me anything about it; nobody could ask Peter anything. It was absolutely done without input from the people who were there." She also said she didn't know Allen was gay: "And I don't think he knew, either. He hadn't come to terms with it yet. And when he did, of course he told me and of course I said, 'I understand.' But it was hard."

Ted's a-ticking

THE Brumby Government has borrowed a leaf out John Howard's book in its latest attack on Ted Baillieu. According to the ALP, the Victorian Liberal leader has "no ticker", the same charge Howard levelled against Kim Beazley to good effect (calling him gutless just wouldn't have worked). Premier John Brumby has chosen an unlikely attack dog this time around, with affable former footballer Justin Madden levelling the ticker claim against Baillieu during a parliamentary committee skirmish. Yet Brumby doesn't seem to want to associate himself with this new line of attack. At a press conference he studiously avoided the issue.

Journalist: "Do you think Ted Baillieu is lacking in ticker?"

Brumby: "I haven't heard the comments."

Journalist: "But do you think he is?"

Brumby: "I didn't hear the comments and I haven't made those comments about him."

Network Ten newshound Gareth Boreham went for the creative approach: "Well, what is your assessment of the state of Ted Baillieu's heart?" Still no bite. Perhaps what the ALP really means to say is that Baillieu has no ticks, surely a good thing.

Tortured souls

THE ticker debate looks a bit limp compared with US political taunting, though. Rhode Island Democratic state politician Rod Driver has dared George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice to get waterboarded for charity. Driver argues the former president and his colleagues should give it a go, given how confident they were that waterboarding didn't constitute torture (though a couple of nanoseconds helped change Christopher Hitchens's mind on that front). Driver will donate to charity $US100 ($128) for every second of waterboarding endured, so come on chaps, it's for a good cause.

Flighty fun's over

WHEN Strewth gets stressed or tired, we start thinking about perhaps a cup of tea, a half-kilo of chocolate, a month in the Maldives, that sort of thing. It's only now we've realised how narrow we've been. When Australian flight attendant Matthew Carney was jailed for a weepingly dumb bomb hoax on an Emirates plane, his lawyer claimed that at the time of the hoax Carney was, ahem, very tired and under stress. By a good stroke of fortune (and the judge's gavel), Carney now has 18months of enforced leisure ahead of him.

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