Brady punch

MOST public servants dread appearing before Senate committees to be questioned, but not the Governor-General's official secretary Stephen Brady.

MOST public servants dread appearing before Senate committees to be questioned, but not the Governor-General's official secretary Stephen Brady, who evidently decided his appearance was his chance to get the good news out.

On Monday he began by telling senators that he welcomed the chance to explain how the office is doing more with less before making his case, accompanied by details, on the number of people his boss Quentin Bryce has met, visits she has made and the big lift in the G-G's website hits, (funnily enough, there was no mention of the cost per wear of the G-G's hats). Still, if Brady ever becomes bored working at Government House he has a big future waiting for him in inspirational speaking.

Old box-office gold

THE Mousetrap (the play that is, not the board game remembered fondly by card-carrying baby boomers) is in its 60th year in London. It was already getting on when David Williamson's Don's Party opened in 1971. But for some unaccountable reason Agatha Christie's murder mystery has never made it on to a stage here. Until now, because--and contain your excitement, please--the first Australian production of this ancient murder mystery is about to start in Sydney. Unlike Williamson's period piece, a sequel to which is now running, old Agatha's effort remains as originally performed. This is a relief. Imagine the caring statement about the need for kindness and understanding for the insane murderer if it was rewritten for these sensitive times.

Blairheads unite

ANOTHER, albeit slightly younger British import, Tony Blair, is also about to tour, with the former PM scheduled to share his wisdom with us in July. You can buy your way into what is billed as "an audience" with him for $1000 for one of the cheap seats. Only a cynic would make jokes about the event being co-presented by Visy, so Strewth simply states this public-spirited company is in the packaging and recycling business.

Locked in

WHATEVER the collective noun for bizzoids is has assembled in Sydney for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's summer school, a three-day extravaganza designed to demystify what ASIC does and establish as much bonhomie as is possible when some students can send others to jail. The conference is tagged The New Regulator Landscape and the logo is three interlocking gearwheels. But as one realist, who unaccountably forgot to tell Strewth his name, pointed out, if you interlock three gearwheels in a triangular format none of them can move.

Best behaviour

YESTERDAY'S no-answer-to-questions time in federal parliament was relatively subdued in that speakers did not need to shout all the time. One of Julia Gillard's answers was heard in such silence Strewth checked the television monitor, fearing the chamber had lapsed into a coma. Speaker Harry Jenkins only had to sound seriously fierce once. It would have made the House of Representatives the pin-up parliament for the new Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona, which wants more debate and fewer diatribes in US politics. With Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as honorary chairs, the institute will be based in Tucson, where a gunman killed six people and wounded 13 last month, including congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. When Jenkins decides he must throw somebody out of the chamber in the future now he has somewhere to send them.

Sign here

PAUL "diary of a faceless man" Howes is such a retiring sort of bloke he must have wondered why anybody would have taken seriously the Twitter rumour that he had gone to Paris with Treasurer Wayne Swan to explain to the G20 how a well-run economy works. He hadn't, but you have to wonder what some obscure European undersecretary for bailing out banks made of being asked to autograph copies of union boss Howes's book about last year's election.

Mail drop

WHAT a surprise, we are not writing letters (anybody under 30 ask your parents) to each other as we used to. According to Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour business has been better and last year's $103 million profit was way under one-third of that of the year before. The problem is "modern technology", by which he means whatever is now the go given that Twitter is so last month. Of course business etiquette requires optimism at all times and Fahour was keen yesterday to find an upside in the downturn. Sadly, the best he could do was suggest internet retailing created delivery opportunities, which sounded like a case of clutching at straws bought online. But there is another way. He could suggest the government prop up his sales by requiring everybody to write to each other, enclosing stamped self-addressed envelopes for the reply. And when we want to buy books for our Kindles we should have to mail our orders overseas. Perhaps he could send the Prime Minister a telegram with the idea.

Stephen Matchett