By hook or Bligh cook

A QUESTION can be a bit like a diamond: the more facets it has, the more dazzling it can appear. Or at least that seemed to be the approach taken by AAP reporter Cathy Alexander at the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

A QUESTION can be a bit like a diamond: the more facets it has, the more dazzling it can appear. Or at least that seemed to be the approach taken by AAP reporter Cathy Alexander at the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

Alexander asked guest speaker, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who'd painted her state as a rather busy one, whether she was herself too busy to make her promised appearance on Celebrity MasterChef. Alexander quickly moved on to appendices two, three and beyond: "And do you think we are moving into a stage in Australian politics where politicians are becoming more famous and there's culture change with the (John) Della Bosca thing? Do you think this is actually a bad thing? Do you think it's inappropriate? Do you accept politicians should stick to their jobs?" Bligh's response: "I have to say I've had a few things said to me about MasterChef this week but I haven't been put in that category. All we're doing is cooking. I might get lucky, I don't know."

Sink before you speak

NO banker is safe from a punchline, not even ANZ chief executive Mike Smith, who was introduced at an Australian Institute of Company Directors lunch at Perth's Hyatt Hotel yesterday by the AICD's Harvey Collins. Noting the global financial apocalypse had created more than the usual bad press for financial types, Harvey cheerfully added, "Someone recently asked the question, what do you call 1000 bankers at the bottom of the ocean? A great start." At least it gave lawyers a break.

Two terms in leaky boat

SOUTH Australian Premier Mike Rann runs a tight ship with his two-term Labor government, but as he prepares to have a crack at a third term, is increasingly worried about leaks. This all became clear at a special gathering of caucus in the Barossa Valley this week as the party prepared to return to parliament on Tuesday after the long winter break. MPs who were there say Rann outlined the party's latest polling and offered thoughts such as: "We can win. The only person who can defeat you is yourself. But if you go leaking to journalists like Michael Owen (of this fair paper) or Greg Kelton (of The Advertiser) or any of those people, then you'll only have yourselves to blame." It didn't take long for Rann's message about not leaking to leak.

The Fisch of Tobruk

JUST when you thought the CV of Bhutan booster, train enthusiast, ambassador to the Holy See and former deputy PM Tim Fischer couldn't possibly be extended, he has popped up in Tripoli as Australia's special representative at the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution (coup doesn't sound so celebration-worthy). And he's there in suitably loud company, namely Melbourne's Rats of Tobruk Memorial Pipes and Drums band, who've been doing midnight performances before Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, King Abdullah II of Jordan and others. "They were terrific," Fischer tells Strewth. Fischer and the band will head to Tobruk (the band's first visit) this weekend for the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II.

Brenchley farewelled

FORMER Fairfax editor Fred Brenchley was farewelled by hundreds of former colleagues and professional contacts at Canberra's St Christopher's Cathedral yesterday. Fairfax business doyen Max Walsh read the eulogy, paying tribute to a bloke who was never daunted by life's challenges. He also noted Brenchley in his later years had become a successful author, with his book on the AE2 (Australia's submarine lost in the Dardanelles in 1915) selling on Amazon for pound stg. 120 ($233). His biography of former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Allan Fels, on the other hand, is selling for less than a quid.