Hall of fame

"THERE'S more chance of me becoming full-forward for the Dogs than there is any chance of a change in the Labor Party," said Julia Gillard last year.

WHEN Kevin Rudd was under pressure as prime minister from his deputy Julia Gillard last year, Gillard said that "there's more chance of me becoming the full-forward for the Dogs [Western Bulldogs AFL team] than there is any chance of a change in the Labor Party."

We all know what happened in the latter case, but there's now a vacancy in the former with Western Bulldogs full-forward Barry Hall announcing his retirement yesterday. The press release yesterday from Gillard, the Western Bulldogs No 1 ticket holder, showed a sense of passion and excitement not evident in any of the large number of press releases on the carbon tax that she has liberated lately. "It's lovely to hear Barry talk about how he remembers growing up in Broadford, racing home from school, kicking the ball around the back paddock, pretending he was Simon Beasley, getting handballs from Doug Hawkins," said the PM whimsically. "I'm sure tonight there will be children in back yards and back paddocks imagining themselves as Barry Hall, getting a handball from Matty Boyd." If only she could apply this folksy touch to the carbon tax.

Peer pressure

WITH activist group Get Up! booking 100 seats at the National Press Club luncheon addressed yesterday by Christopher Monckton, there was anticipation of a punch-up of State of Origin proportions as his lordship's supporters and their opponents eyeballed each other over the bread rolls. Maurice Riley, the Press Club's chief executive, seemed to set the tone for a melee when he reminded lunchers it was a no shoe-throwing venue, but in the end most of those present maintained both their shoes and their sensibilities. The greatest show of stroppiness came from Campus Review journo Jennifer Bennett, who wanted to know why Monckton wouldn't debate climate scientists on their terms, which might have been a bit difficult with the limited amount of time available over lunch.

School mates

OUR item yesterday about a Mrs Howard teaching Julia Gillard the ropes of debating at Unley High and a denial that it was Janette Howard prompted a previous Strewth columnist, Jane Fraser, to recall her own teaching days at Randwick Girls High in the 1960s with Mrs Howard. (That's the former prime minister's wife, not Gillard's debating mentor.) Political discussions between staff at the two sibling schools in Sydney's eastern suburbs would have been interesting, as the maths teacher at Randwick Boys High at the time was Pip Whitlam, the wife of Tony Whitlam, whose father, Gough, was then en route to the Lodge.

Back with a Bang

WHEN details of the former NSW Labor government's yet-to-be released transport blueprint were published in a Sydney newspaper last year, after being downloaded from a supposedly secure website, claims of computer hacking were thrown around, even before such claims against journalists became quite so fashionable. In the end, it turned out there was no criminality on the part of the journalist, but some incompetence on the part of Bang the Table, the internet company commissioned to run the website for the blueprint, which went live with the transport blueprint on its website before the government did. The Coalition made hay at the time as Bang the Table had Egg on Face, which is why it came as a surprise yesterday when it was revealed the table bangers had been rehired, to run the website for the Barry O'Farrell government's pet project, a new rail line from Sydney's central business district to the outer northwest. No doubt the website will be watched closely as the public checks to see if Bang the Table Jumps the Gun again.

The White stuff

IT does seem to be a stunt from the just-spell-my-name-right school of public relations, but an Australian nappy hygiene company has contracted a Washington-based lobbying firm to try to get naming rights to the White House. The synergy apparently in this case is that nappies are white and the White House is also white, so when people see the White House in future, they'll think of white nappies. Seems a bit of a stretch, but Vanish NapiSan is willing to pay $25 million for naming rights, and have contracted Washington-based Grayling to set up meetings with congressmen and others for the deal. It's been a while since Strewth was called on to do the nappies, but we'd still guess your average nappy washer would prefer cheaper NapiSan to the NapiSan White House.

Twitter nets record

IF you've ever wondered what Twitter is good for, the answer seems to be sport, with a new Twitter record of 7196 tweets a second recorded during Japan's thrilling win over the US in the women's World Cup soccer final, which beat the 7166 tweets a second in Brazil's shock loss to Paraguay this week. Outside football, the most tweeted have been the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Osama bin Laden's death, and the royal wedding.