It's my party

STATE governments are normally keen to trap journalists in their budget lock-ups, as a means to guarantee coverage.

STATE governments are normally keen to trap journalists in their budget lock-ups, as a means to guarantee coverage.

However, the NSW Labor Government has reacted in what may be characterised as a lukewarm fashion to hints from The Australian that it may include star columnist and Dr Evil lookalike Michael Costa in its crew for the June 16 state budget lock-up. Advisers to NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal have even questioned Costa's media credentials. But surely nobody is better placed than Roozendaal's predecessor helpfully to point out holes in the Treasurer's numbers or slipperiness in his projections. And wouldn't the presence of the combative former MP and union boss be guaranteed to make Roozendaal's post-budget media conference a memorable affair? As for Costa, he's bitterly disappointed at the cold shoulder: "I promise I would be just as well behaved as when I was delivering the budget myself," he assured Strewth.

Suffering, the little children

MANY children unfortunately are forced to live with parents who drink alcohol and gamble, so unlike the recreational pursuits at the Strewth household where the free market Monopoly is the only game of chance. But surely the sordid side of life has not invaded ABC television's Play School? How could a child troubled by adults with seedy habits aspire to a better life? Well, maybe it has happened: offscreen. ABC radio's The World Today, reporting yesterday on another corner of the public broadcaster, says political unrest is growing about some Play School live concerts being held in pubs and clubs, as they have been for eight years. During Senate estimates committee hearings this week, the Australian Greens queried the ABC's association with Kids Promotion, the concert presenter. ABC management responds that these performances are held away from gambling areas and there's nowhere else to have concerts in some parts of the country. But Glenys Stradijot, of Friends of the ABC, told the radio program the practice "is introducing children to the environment ... of gambling and alcohol establishments at an age before they are too young to determine themselves whether or not that is an appropriate place for them to be". The Greens also found support from that foe of gambling, independent senator Nick Xenophon who wants the shows stopped in clubs. Asked by the ABC if he thought that, in the minds of children, characters such as Big Ted could be seen as endorsing the activities in these venues of vice and booze (not the reporter's exact words), Xenophon agreed: "Well, that is the risk." If only the Bananas in Pyjamas were involved; we have a good bender joke ready to go.

Barking mad

WE know that, as the self-appointed ink monitor of Australian media, Gerard Henderson is a busy man and his eyeballs can't be everywhere at once, but Strewth was wounded - wounded, we tell you - to see Hendo's Media Watch Dog column credit Sydney's The Daily Telegraph with breaking the story of the Liberal hotties blog last Friday. We can only assume he didn't read Strewth the day before the Tele came out. We may be able to forgive you Hendo but, like you, we can never, ever, ever forget.

Then along came Jones

IAN Macfarlane, the respected former governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, has always caused confusion, not by intention of course. For much of Macfarlane's term at the RBA, his namesake, Ian Macfarlane, was working his way through the ranks of the Howard government to become industry, tourism and resources minister. It was not uncommon for newspapers to run photographs of the wrong man or attribute quotes to the wrong Macfarlane. Governor Macfarlane didn't help matters when he left the RBA and joined the board of ANZ Bank just before John McFarlane stepped down as chief executive. Confused? Well, angry ANZ shareholders certainly are. Last week, a collection of Americans who held ANZ's US-listed shares filed a class action over the bank's involvement in the collapse of stock broker Opes Prime last year (ANZ, its executives and directors deny all allegations). The action names as defendants ANZ chairman Charles Goode, chief executive Mike Smith, finance chief Peter Marriott and one "Ian J. Macfarlane". Then the confusion goes up a notch. The action says Macfarlane is "chairman of ANZ's governance committee and a member of the risk committee, the credit and trading risk committee" (true). It then says he "has been a director of the company since 1997" (actually, since 2007). And he "was the chief executive officer from October 1997 through September 2007" (er, no, that's John). ANZ's official position is that it's a "mangy dog of a legal action with no chance of success ... It's one of the most poorly researched and amateur legal claims we have ever encountered without any foundation in fact."

Hot topic

BACK to the ABC, and congratulations to actor and Fairfax columnist William McInnes for realising the dream of the Right and getting advertising on to Aunty when he appeared on ABC1's Q&A on Thursday night. Asked to give a few last words on the subject of climate change, McInnes instead slipped in a plug (if that's the right word in this context) for his wife Sarah Watt's film My Year Without Sex. For the sake of everyone concerned, Strewth hopes it's not an autobiographical flick.

Take it to your grave

THE idea of donating dough to the dead has certainly roused some of the living. Reader John Kotsopoulos noted tartly: "Kevin Rudd should have waited until everyone stopped dying before handing out the cash." One of Strewth's agents is meanwhile bemused that her husband - who is very much still bearing this mortal coil - didn't qualify for one of Kev's handouts. She writes: "Balthazar (not his real name) didn't have to put in a tax return last year because he didn't earn anything. So he didn't get the $900. He has no money, would love to spend $900 to help things along, and didn't get a bean. He is apparently a non-person, even more non than a dead person." Balthazar has apparently contemplated dying to qualify for the $900; we're pretty sure he's just exercising his black sense of humour, but if the scheme were to work, it would surely constitute the ultimate reverse departure tax.

Pilot lights up

SPEAKING of rousing readers, there's nothing quite like a pot-and-kettle stoush between Qantas boss Alan Joyce and the nation's airports on the subject of overcharging to get pulses up. Especially among readers who have just been reminded that a wild night in Monte Carlo can feel less brutal on the pocket than a few hours in an airport car park. We hope the Strewth email inbox was of some use to readers who wished to get a few things off their chests; we'd run the best efforts if this wasn't a family paper. While we're talking transport, Strewth's readers may be old enough to remember the days of smoking carriages on trains, the upstairs of London buses and even the haze at the back of the plane. Flying on Royal Jordanian to Amman the other week, a colleague was magically transported to those innocent days of stinking clothes and racking coughs when his wife roused him from the slumber (caution: product placement and boasting ahead) afforded by Royal Jordanian's business-class seats with the magic words: "Can you smell smoke?" Strewth's colleague woke in a hurry. There was something in the air, but rather than a harbinger of disaster, it was cigarette smoke, uncoiling in nostalgically carcinogenic wisps from under the cockpit door.

Just ask Pete

JUST a week after Malcolm "It's not as much as it looks" Turnbull put out a call for a senior adviser and economist (a gig Strewth was rather hoping Peter Costello would volunteer for), Treasurer Wayne Swan has revealed he's also on the hunt for a senior policy adviser. It sounds like a very nice job and, by all accounts, Canberra is a lovely town to live in once the initial shock has worn off.