Battle pauses

THERE was an outbreak of bipartisanship in inner Sydney's Redfern yesterday.

THERE was an outbreak of bipartisanship in inner Sydney's Redfern yesterday.

The event that brought together Tony Abbott, Labor's Tanya Plibersek, former ALP president Warren Mundine, former ALP national campaign director Tim Gartell and noted miner Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest. There wasn't a whiff of super profits tax in the air but rather support for Forrest's indigenous employment, education and training scheme, Generation One (of which Gartell is now chief executive). "It's the thing I'm most passionate about, apart from God and family," Forrest told Strewth. The ceasefire vibe was powerful. Plibersek noted: "It must make a nice change for you, too, Tony, not to be fighting someone." Abbott thanked Plibersek for making it bipartisan, then described Mundine as "my friend but sadly not my political colleague". As for ending indigenous disadvantage, Forrest declared he could see light at the end of the tunnel. The only blip in the aura of love and possibility was the Nine news van pulling up halfway through Forrest's speech; we had a vision of the van being held up as it tried to leave Nine HQ, only to find the way blocked by Laurie Oakes and Mark Latham duking it out on the driveway. As a theory, we suspect it's less than watertight.

Spare his man parts

PRESS release of the day is courtesy of the South Australian government: "Minister for the River Murray Paul Caica is calling on Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond and the state Liberal Party to leave member for Chaffey Tim Whetstone's body parts intact and support a bipartisan approach to the Gillard Labor government's policy on the management of the River Murray. Mr Whetstone has revealed he is supportive of the federal government's plan to save the River Murray by buying back water allocations, but is too scared to speak out in fear of 'getting his balls cut out'." Unquote.

Surf's up says GetUp

POLITICAL activist group GetUp is getting het up (ooh, Strewth takes a turn for the verse) about the Iron Monk not honouring their win in the press gallery's Midwinter Ball charity auction, the one that saw them fork out more than $16,000 for former asylum-seeker Riz Wakil to get a surfing lesson from the Opposition Leader. GetUp claims Abbott has gone cold on the deal and, consequently, they're planning to dog the Monk with a mobile protest billboard. At the risk of sounding soft, we suspect it may be that Abbott's dance card is a tad full just at the moment, at least until Saturday week. We checked with Abbott's office and here's the official word: "Tony will certainly deliver on his commitment." Phew for that. Hopefully Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan will similarly deliver on their commitment to go barefoot lawn bowling for charity; apart from everything else, we're curious to see how bowls looks as a contact sport.

Not correct, Sophine

ABOUT 400 freshly graduated international student nurses braved the rain in Melbourne yesterday to protest at a bureaucratic bumble that gave them scant notice of a national increase in the English language test score needed for their registration. These students now stand to miss out on job offers in hospitals, and many have only a few weeks before their student visas expire. It was unfortunate, then, that one of their protest signs read: "We Have Ticked Every Boxes." Still, it's easily done. For example, Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella put out a press release yesterday with her own name spelled Sophine.

Hobart hurts too

GIVEN Tasmania's population is but half a million, its notorious north-south parochial divide can be cause for either (a) affectionate amusement, or (b) celebration for the triumph of mind over matter. But the good folk of the south have a legitimate grievance over our federal political leaders' snubbing of Hobart, surely one of our finest capitals. [Want your town plugged town here? Contact Strewth at the address below]. Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have made several trips to Tassie in recent weeks, but have focused on the north, home to two key marginal seats. Mercifully, Gillard looks set to break the drought today when she's expected in Midway Point, east of Hobart, and, overlooking the small fact a number of people are already connected, "launch" the first national broadband network connections. In the meantime, we're hoping the Coalition takes a more madly contrarian stance on broadband, if only so they can deploy the catchy yet Liberal-sounding slogan "Stop the bits".

Monk or the mall?

TONY Abbott has chosen a less than perfect night to hold his big fund-raising function in Melbourne this evening. Some Liberal corporate types who might have forked out the cool $1100 per head to hear Tony's pearls of wisdom have a diary clash with the ritzy opening of the new flagship David Jones store in Bourke Street Mall, to which a corporate who's who has apparently been invited. On the list are transport magnate Lindsay Fox, former Fairfax Media chairman Ron Walker, former Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson and Coles Supermarkets boss Ian McLeod.

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