Greens take free kick at politicians accepting footy freebies

Victorian Greens want politicians to pass on offers of free tickets to the footy grand final.

Olivia Newton-John and Malcolm Turnbull in Parliament House yesterday. Picture: Gary Ramage

Greens footy gripes

Richard Di Natale risks a fight with his own state branch over the footy of all things. Victorian Greens MPs have called on Liberal and Labor politicians not to accept tickets to the grand final from the AFL after the major parties blocked a Greens bill to give a higher allocation of grand final tickets to ordinary members of the two prospective teams last week. Well, Strewth can reveal Di Natale himself was a guest of the AFL at last Friday’s Richmond v Geelong game. You’d think his local state representatives wouldn’t be too pleased with their national leader breaking their edict. But have no fear, Di Natale’s spokesman said the Greens leader donated $1000 to Red Dust Role Models, a health promotion charity focused on remote indigenous communities, in exchange for the freebies. Thank heavens another battle in the endless Greens civil war has been averted.

Abbott fights fires

Former prime minister and MP for Warringah Tony Abbott at work.

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire, it’s firefighter Tony Abbott. The former prime minister left parliament early yesterday to help fight the bushfires in Sydney’s northern beaches. Malcolm Turnbull may have been happy that Abbott was covered by a pair in parliament yesterday. And no doubt Abbott’s constituents also were happy their favourite firefighter was on hand to help in their hour of need. There was Abbott: firefighter’s hat on, a bottle of water, all man-of-the-people-y. The ex-Liberal leader was with the Davidson Brigade. It’s believed he was in Beacon Hill, just 7km from his home in Forestville, which sits on the edge of Garigal National Park. Abbott also helped the brigade last weekend. Whether Abbott comes back to Canberra for today’s last sitting day all depends on how the fire develops, sources close to the former prime minister and local hero say.

Butler’s blues

In other footy sightings, Labor’s Mark Butler was spotted by a Strewth agent at last Saturday’s Port Adelaide v West Coast Eagles game. The member for Adelaide Ports was right in front of Port Adelaide chairman and Seven’s Sunrise host David “Kochie” Koch. Alas, Port Adelaide lost.

We love Olivia

Canberra just couldn’t get enough of Australian icon Olivia Newton-John, who was visiting the nation’s capital for the first time to talk about cancer research. Everyone from Labor’s Anne Aly to the Prime Minister got a pic with the Grease and Xanadu star, who’s fighting another bout of breast cancer. A straw poll of The Australian’s Melbourne bureau found Hopelessly Devoted to You is still the favourite Newton-John hit. However, this august organ’s ever more august opinion editor Alan Howe suggested Strewth listen to If Not For You. It was a big hit for Newton-John in 1971 but it didn’t push records for its very famous writer, Bob Dylan.

Law & Order: SSM

Across the Bass Strait, Tasmania’s police minister is threatening to keep Media Watch-style tabs on local reports of the same-sex marriage postal survey. Rene Hidding, a No supporter, has told state parliament he’ll be keeping “a detailed log of all events and media releases, op-eds and letters to the editor issued by the Coalition for Marriage, by the No vote, and compare that to coverage achieved within all media outlets in Tasmania”. He also may want to keep an eye on his boss, Premier Will Hodgman, who has come out in support of gay marriage along with the biased media. Strewth defends Hidding’s right to fight for traditional marriage but we do wonder if he should take some time out of his planned blogging to, you know, catch crooks.

Seinfeld Time

Former Cleo bachelor (and incumbent Social Services Minister) Christian Porter made a series of Seinfeld references in question time yesterday. Between Scott Morrison’s Harry Potter motifs earlier in the week and Porter’s more recent usage of the classic 1990s sitcom to attack Labor, it’s clear the cabinet hasn’t watched or read anything remotely popular since 2007.

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