A cult above

CONGRATULATIONS to Labor strategist Bruce Hawker, who has been photographed at Wimbledon.

Hawker

CONGRATULATIONS to Labor strategist Bruce Hawker, who has been photographed at Wimbledon.

Despite being seated behind Pippa Middleton, whose posterior has spawned in Blighty a derriere-deifying cult as powerful as the one that attended Kylie Minogue's seat, Hawker's attention is firmly on the court. That's focus. Bob Katter, meanwhile, has been urging resistance to more ancient cults. Calling for the removal of flying foxes from populated areas, His Bobness notes: "An attitude that puts human life at risk for the latest environmental fashion is not a new value system. Human sacrifice to trees and animals was quite common among the druids and many northern European tribes. It is not new but it is still vicious."

Game, set, match

IT so often starts the same way: a letter is fired off to the editor of the paper, which is followed by a riposte, which is followed by a counter-riposte. Before you know it, letters are zinging back and forth relentlessly between two aggrieved parties, while helpless onlookers cross their fingers and hope it will be over by Christmas. Such a spat is playing out on the correspondence page of this august organ between the Sydney Institute's Anne Henderson - a missive-monger with every bit as much stamina as her husband, Gerard Henderson - and the Liberal Party's Michael Kroger. The topic under discussion - whether the Lyons government won a bigger majority in the lower house in 1931 than Fraser's mob in 1975 - has triggered a slugfest that beats anything at Wimbledon. We hope yesterday's headline over the latest from Kroger ("The last word?") was simply misplaced pessimism.

Man's best fiend

THIS week, we mentioned the time Joh Bjelke-Petersen was bitten by a dog, resulting in an outpouring of sympathy for the dog. We prefaced this bijou of political history with the handy clause "legend has it". Writer Hugh Lunn writes to the rescue: "Legend didn't 'have it', it happened. But it wasn't 'a dog' it was 'his dog'. When the National Party deposed its own leader in 1987, I wrote a long feature in which I used a bit of inside reporter knowledge, writing: 'Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the only man ever bitten by his own dog . . .' "

Ancient history

STICKING with Queensland's pollies of yore, a bijou from Strewth correspondent Russell Grenning: "The decision by Sydney City Council to declare as official policy the assertion that the establishment of a British penal colony there in 1788 constituted an 'invasion' brings to mind an exchange between a young indigenous activist and my then leader, Russ Hinze, in 1985 when he was visiting Aboriginal councils in Cape York. Exclaimed the aforementioned young activist to the minister for everything, 'You have been oppressing us for 200 years.' Replied Hinze, 'Son, how bloody old do you think I am?' " There was a certain rock-of-ages aspect to Hinze's features.

Keep on keeping on

WE mentioned this week that former NSW education minister Verity Firth's "Keep Verity" election placards have been hanging around the Sydney electorate of Balmain so long after the state election they're heritage listable. Reader Yolande Kyngdon tells us that across the border in Marrickville, Labor's Carmel Tebutt's "Keep Carmel" signs are also assuming permanence. Perhaps Tebbutt's husband, Anthony Albanese, could wander the streets and, like those proverbial folk who can charm the birds out of the trees, bellow the placards off the poles.

Walk against want

TWO entries in Good Cause Corner, and the first is Senator John Faulkner, who is about to perform his annual ritual of dragging a few hapless bastards 100km through the bush from the Hawkesbury River to Sydney Harbour for the Sydney Oxfam Trailwalk. To ensure Faulkner and his team, including Kevin Rudd's former chief of staff Alister Jordan, don't suffer in vain, you can chip in for the Tigers, aka Team 100, at trailwalker.oxfam.org.au. In the meantime, Neighbour Day founder Andrew Heslop is thrilled with a TV ad for the annual event made gratis by Brisbane company Taxi Films. Says Heslop, "Thanks to David Leckie , David Gyngell, Kim Williams, Mark Scott, Angelos Frangopoulos, Peter Jenetsky, Nicole Sheffield and Alan Joyce at Qantas it was seen all over Australia, including in prime time. They all put it to air for free." Alas, there's been a hiccup with the donor who was going to cover the $2500 distribution cost. "I have funded Neighbour Day out of my own pocket for 10 years without any government or corporate financial support. Perhaps a generous Strewth reader can help out? Contact me at www.neighbourday.org."