Fellow toe-cutters

THERE was something less than totally surprising about seeing celebrated toe-cutter Mark "Chopper" Read and Rudd-lopper Mark Arbib interacting on Twitter yesterday.

THERE was something less than totally surprising about seeing celebrated toe-cutter Mark "Chopper" Read and Rudd-lopper Mark Arbib interacting on Twitter yesterday.

That the subject was Arbib's support for televised lawn bowls did make us sprain an eyebrow, but that's by the by. Read got the ball rolling with the observation, "You will all be happy to know that Mark Arbib is going to sort out the ABC to keep bowls on TV. F . . k me dead, we can sleep at night now." As was noted, the Sports Minister stood his ground. Curiously, all it took was a bit of to and fro with Arbib for Chopper to tweet to Kevin Rudd: "Kevin come back, all is forgiven!!! I'll even lend you my best pair of boltcutters if needed mate!" Asked about Chopper's generous offer, Rudd's office told Strewth, "Mr Rudd supports lawn bowls receiving even greater media coverage than just on the ABC and has taken bipartisan steps with Julie Bishop to help bring lawn bowls coverage to Channel 10." Ah, yes, the 7PM Project appearance early this year. We couldn't help noticing Rudd's people avoided mentioning Chopper. Correctly, as it turned out. Chopper later went on radio to say it wasn't him; doesn't even have a computer. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

Evils of the press

QUOTE of the day: "Print media can be tricky. You have no control. When it goes well, I'm grateful." Communications Minister Stephen Conroy during his press conference yesterday announcing an inquiry into the media? No, actor Alec Baldwin on Twitter.

Leave it to Harry

WE'RE still in doubt as to whether federal parliamentary question time will go ahead today after Anthony Albanese declared it was "not in order for a member of parliament to cast aspersions upon another member". Which wouldn't leave a whole lot, except perhaps 90 nearly unbroken minutes of Speaker Harry Jenkins's voice. (Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like yesterday's QT.) In the meantime, we salute Tony Abbott for the timing of his characterisation of Labor's clean energy bills as "the longest suicide note in Australian history"; we're glad he didn't save that bijou for today, as it might have struck the wrong note on RU OK? Day.

Latin lovers

PERHAPS Canberra could find some QT inspiration in Adelaide. Say yesterday, when Liberal MP David Pisoni asked Aboriginal Affairs Minister Grace Portolesi if she would be kind enough to confirm she'd spent "more nights in Italy than in the [Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara] Lands since becoming the Minister". Here's how some of it went:

Portolesi: "From one Italian to another, I can juggle more than one thing at a time."

MP: "That's Amore."

Portolesi: "That's Amore! [Interjection, then a yell of Or-duh! from the Speaker.] These are the facts, Madam Speaker: I gather they are referring to a trip that I had planned, to meet with senior Italian government officials. . . . People say I look like Sophia Loren, you know."

Labor whip-around

MEANWHILE, not too many sleeps left until to Labor's next bracing round of self-laceration. Graham Richardson and former NSW minister Rodney Cavalier will be joining forces on October 5* to launch fellow former Labor government minister Frank Sartor's book, The Fog On the Hill: How NSW Labor Lost Its Way. (*Self-laceration may commence earlier than advertised.)

Petrov project

HISTORIAN Ross Fitzgerald is on the hunt for information about a flight attendant who may have played a pivotal role in the defection of Vladimir Petrov's wife, Evdokia Petrova, at Darwin airport in 1954. Apparently, nothing could be done until she requested Australian authorities take action on her behalf. Says Fitzgerald, "My understanding is that on the Sydney to Darwin flight, Petrova confided to a BOAC flight steward named Muir that she 'needed help', a request which was passed on to Australian security authorities. This allowed ASIO to act and free her in Darwin from the two Soviet goons who held her. Conceivably Muir might still be alive, as could be an air hostess by the name of Joyce Bull who was on the same flight and to whom, it seemed, Muir spoke about the matter." If you have any information, the Strewth Defections Department would love to hear from you via the usual address below.

Quality, by George

WE'RE an egalitarian bunch at the Oz, except perhaps George Megalogenis, who has gone big-noting his bureau to Crikey: "Surprisingly for people who are Canberra focused I'd say the Melbourne bureau of The Australian [is the strongest news-gathering bureau in Australia]. Three of them are Perkin winners - Cameron Stewart, Rowan Callick, Kate Legge - and I'd add another two to the list: John Durie and Ewin Hannan. You normally get a cluster of brilliance like that in a Canberra bureau, but the five of them I'd pit against any bureau in the country."