Strewth: Getting the hang

When Peter Dutton replaced Scott Morrison in immigration, we wondered if anything could be the same again.

When Peter Dutton replaced Scott Morrison in immigration, we wondered if anything could be the same again. Moz, after all, radiated the unique aura of a man who’d made a star of Lara Bingle and regretted nothing. Then there was the fact Moz had a range of at least two facial expressions (expanded to three when he changed portfolios), whereas Dutton’s face appears to have a pause function, which is stuck. But then come the moments you know the magic is working: yesterday, for example, as Dutts carefully enunciated these words, “I don’t have any comment to make in relation to operational matters.” A short time later, he opted to settle the matter: “I don’t comment in relation to operational matters.”

It starts as a joke ...

“Why, I can smile; and murder while I smile,” as Shakespeare had Richard III say. Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to the mirthful menace of this exchange yesterday between the Nine Network’s business and finance editor Ross Greenwood and Joe Hockey over a report on workplace discrimination against people over 50:

Greenwood: “... You turn 50 in August this year. Is there any self-interest in any of this that you’ve announced? I mean you could technically find yourself out of a job at some stage and maybe be part of that discrimination?”

Hockey: “Well, discrimination in any form is reprehensible. Discrimination against a treasurer turning 50 is no different to discrimination faced by others in the workforce, including you, Ross. I mean, you’re a young man, and in good shape as well, so let’s keep it that way. But if you continue that line of questioning it might not remain so.”

Cue laughter, and perhaps some sinister music (heavy on the cellos, hold the oboe.)

Yeah, nah

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, goes the old saying. Unless you’re The Australian Financial Review, which briefly had this masterfully ambidextrous combination online yesterday. Headline: “Packer becomes ‘first non-Jewish Zionist’ ”. And this opening sentence: “A spokesman for billionaire James Packer has denied claims by his friend and business partner Brett Ratner that Mr Packer has become an Israeli citizen.” Five stars.

Lest we forget to tweet

An announcement from Brendan Nelson and the crew at the Australian War Memorial: “On Anzac Day, the Memorial will be encouraging people to use the hash tag #AnzacDay to post their Tweets of commemorative events and activities from their own communities. In partnership with Twitter, the Memorial will collect the Tweets as a record of how people commemorated the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli.” Hashtag lest we forget. Meanwhile, a salute to the Turkish security guard who held a brolly over Tony Abbott as he spoke to media, determined, no matter how much his arm was in shot, that our PM not get damp. Not that there’s much chance of Abbott becoming a Liberal wet.

Act of Gough

It’s a bit of a tradition in Australia to attribute good things done by Liberal governments to Gough Whitlam. Now and then, someone bucks the trend; we just never expected it would be Crikey. But there they were yesterday, running a comment that included: “I turned 18 in 1972 and was able to vote as PM Billy McMahon had just lowered the voting age from 21.” Over to Whitlam.org: “By enacting the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1973, Whitlam lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. This legislation also allowed citizens as young as 18 to run for parliament.” The latter eventually meant the door was open to Wyatt Roy, though.

In vino [redacted]

A fine example of the time-honoured art of shooting the messenger, courtesy of Helen Dowling and her husband Peter Dowling, the former Queensland MP who dunked his trunk in a glass of wine (a schlong drop?) and texted the photographic evidence to a woman who was not Mrs Dowling. Yesterday both expressed their abiding state of unhappiness towards the Courier-Mail journalist who broke the story. But for our part, there’s one aspect of the saga we’ve never got past: surely there are easier ways to drink wine.

How we waited

In the Watched Pot department, we were sad to discover that, after all of our semi-regular, almost entirely pointless updates about the ongoing non-appointment of an editor for the Labor Herald, the ALP announced an editor almost the moment we stepped out the door a couple of weeks back. If only they’d waited a little longer, we could’ve celebrated the first anniversary of the original job ad seeking an editor. That they appointed the former editor-in-chief of Kidspot has gone some way towards softening the blow.

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