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FREED from the constraints of political party membership, Queensland MP Michael "Commission Not Impossible" Johnson is channelling his energies into something vaster, nobler and a shedload more ambitious: the transformation of Australian politics.

FREED from the constraints of political party membership, Queensland MP Michael "Commission Not Impossible" Johnson is channelling his energies into something vaster, nobler and a shedload more ambitious: the transformation of Australian politics.

He's flagged his vision on Twitter (Strewth, yesterday), but happily, he's gone into detail on Facebook. Since a lot of people are grumpy with Facebook, we've reproduced some highlights of the entrepreneurial pollie's manifesto: "1. Fixed four-year terms. 2. Maximum two terms for prime ministers. 3. Maximum five four-year parliamentary terms on all MPs. 4. Absolute and total ban on all govt. advertising 12 months before the election date . . . 8. Super majority of . . . 66 per cent of an electorate's vote has binding power and can overturn their local MP's vote in the parliament on a piece of legislation." We can feel the fire! We can also feel a Monkees tune: "He fell into disgrace, now he's a believer", and so forth. Alas, it's not easy for a prophet in his own land. When Johnson reposted on Facebook this tweet- "LNP President, Mr Bruce McIver referred to the Australian Parliament's Privileges Committee. Very serious charge" - one Facebook friend responded: "What was he referred for? Trying to broker a backhander for himself with a Chinese coal importer? There's a bit of that around lately."

Come fly with us

WHAT do you do when you're a former Qantas executive general manager turned Virgin Blue chief executive and your new airline is suffering a profit downgrade? (We could have gone down the turbulence metaphor route, but we're not that cheap. At least, not today.) If you're John Borghetti, one option may be to talk everyone you know into flying on your planes. That's one possible explanation for yesterday's sighting of former Qantas chief Geoff Dixon boarding a Virgin flight at Adelaide airport.

Nude for next poll

FROM the Department of Missed Opportunities: it strikes us as a shame that whoever was charged with the task of rustling up a lorry for Tony Abbott's trucking stunt yesterday was unable to find one sporting that quintessential item of trucking life: a silhouette of a naked woman. Still, the truck was green, which was at least in keeping with yesterday's Newspoll results.

Smith: pron. Smy-ith

EVEN though they toil for Fairfax Media (boo, hiss, etc), we were relieved that writer Paul McGeough and photographer Kate Geraghty were unharmed when Israeli forces joined that Gaza-bound flotilla. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was also relieved in question time, not least because he knows McGeough. Which made it all the puzzling when he repeatedly pronounced his name as Mc-Gee-Oh, rather than McGo. Still, it was but a minor aberration in a question time otherwise so shouty, it undoubtedly drowned the sound of Newspoll-giddy Greens leader Bob Brown chuckling quietly to himself elsewhere in the house.

Kylie, burkas, mines

A THOUGHT hitherto unspoken until raised by film critic Myles Barlow on Twitter: "Surely a law against burkas will impact unfairly on ninjas." This was so unexpected and yet so pertinent, it made our mental train suffer a signals failure almost as thoroughly as Kylie Minogue's new video clip, which features bouncing marshmallows, a near orgy and an inflatable white elephant. At least we think it was a Kylie clip. It could have been one of Kevin Rudd's bunkum-busting ads for the super profits thing.

Pull the other plug

IT'S not just super profits being targeted by the powers in the national capital, it's rogue toasters. Inmates of the Health and Ageing Department's new building in the Canberra suburb of Woden have been ordered to reduce their power usage in accordance with the energy efficiency in government operations policy. The department has signed leases to ensure the new building meets 4.5 in the National Australian Built Environment Rating System, but an internal staff memo (that was, er, glanced at by The Australian) shows moves are afoot to slash power usage the tough way: "Any appliances that have not been approved by the department will be removed during the audit. This includes: personal heaters or fans; additional fridges installed on floors or offices; radios; additional appliances located on floors, in workstations or in kitchens. Should any of these items be found in the building, they will be removed and retained by Property Services Section." There shall be no mercy.

One last w(h)ine . . .

WE would, belatedly, like to congratulate the Sydney Writers Festival for setting a new box office record, especially if the improved bottom line means they can do something about the wine for next year's opening party. It's possible our palate was afflicted at this year's shindig, but we did wonder how they'd managed to get the cat to balance on top of the bottle. Perhaps they'll allow BYO next year. Or maybe we'll just stay home and read a book. Which may be part of the SWF's long-term plan.