This is the year of delivering dangerously little except when it comes to pen pushers

THE PM has backed down on being the dominant health funder but there will be more bureaucrats.

Julia Gillard November 29, 2010:

2011 IS also the year we deliver historic health reform. From July 1, the commonwealth's share of hospital funding will increase to 60 per cent. And the commonwealth begins funding 60 per cent of public hospital research, training and capital.

Julia Gillard on ABC radio Melbourne 774 yesterday:

We have agreed that the federal government will step up and be an equal partner in the growth of health costs.

Kevin Rudd on MTR 1377, April 21, 2010 :

Steve Price: Can you guarantee me this is not another layer of bureaucracy, not another bunch of people sitting around computers that aren't actually on a ward, fixing people up who are sick?

Rudd: Absolutely not. I mean, this is the nonsense I hear . . .

Price: So no more bureaucrats?

Rudd: I said before that in terms of the overall implementation of these reforms -- and I was adamant about this when I introduced this reform plan of ours at the National Press Club about six weeks ago -- that there would be no net increase in bureaucracy.

Julia Gillard yesterday on ABC radio Melbourne 774:

Jon Faine: We'll see more bureaucrats too won't we?

PM: We'll see less bureaucrats under this model than under the model agreed last year.

Faine: But you've got another layer of decision making, how can there be fewer bureaucrats?

PM: Well Jon, last year the agreement was to create a new bureaucracy in every state and territory as well as a national pool. I have swept away all of those new bureaucracies in states and territories.

Faine: So Kevin Rudd's model was for even more bureaucrats than your model, but your model is, is it not, for more bureaucrats than we have now?

PM: My model's for more transparency, Jon.

Faine: And that means bureaucrats, people who count stuff?

PM: But Jon in using that term you're obviously trying to imply somehow this isn't worthwhile.

Ask not for whom it toll. Michelle Grattan in The Age on February 9:

[Tony Abbott's] long silences which made for riveting television were a dreadful look. He tried to stem the damage by quickly contacting the soldier's widow. But the strong reaction by the dead man's father, combined with Abbott's confrontation with Seven's Mark Riley, will ensure the story exacts its toll.

Who? Phil Coorey in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

The week of unrest and infighting that marked the federal opposition's return to parliament has had no impact on voters, with a new poll showing the Coalition holding a thumping election-winning lead over Labor. The latest Herald/Nielsen poll shows the Coalition leading Labor on a two-party preferred basis by 54 per cent to 46 per cent, a swing of 4 per cent since the August election.

Who's a naughty boy? ABC1 Lateline's Ali Moore:

Julian Assange is still in London fighting an extradition to Sweden over sexual misconduct allegations.

Esther Addley in The Guardian last Friday:

Miss A has accused the WikiLeaks founder of ripping off her clothes and trying to force himself on her without wearing a condom.

Peter Hartcher in the SMH on Saturday:

The electronic media gave the trivia and spectacle of "shit happens" equal emphasis to the country's new and concerted effort to deal with one of our greatest national problems. The newspapers were no better. Indeed, this newspaper put the shit story on the front page on the first day and ran another piece inside the paper the following day, yet managed to find no room to report Closing the Gap.

P1 headline, The Australian last Thursday:

Gap won't close if you don't act