Keeping the faith

AS members and senators returned to Parliament House on the morning after the budget - none the worse for wear, of course - there was a gaggle of hardy media crews waiting to catch the merest sliver of backbench wisdom.

AS members and senators returned to Parliament House on the morning after the budget - none the worse for wear, of course - there was a gaggle of hardy media crews waiting to catch the merest sliver of backbench wisdom.

Yesterday, religion got a modest airing. First, Nationals Senator John Williams struck gold when he said interest rates will go up. "If this budget does not put pressure on interest rates then that will be Mary MacKillop's third miracle." Good grab, senator, but might not make the 6 o'clock news. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was somewhat shy and out of sight (although pumping out the Great Big New Tax ad nauseam on ABC radio), prompting Liberal Pat Farmer to say he wasn't sure where his boss was. "I've just come from church and he wasn't at church this morning." Farmer goes to church on a Wednesday? That's devotion for you.

Gangster rap

THE colourful Family First senator Steve Fielding was in a dark mood, likening the budget to the Victorian underworld. "Mr Rudd and Mr Swan have delivered a Melbourne-style gangland budget. It's all smiles on the surface but underneath there is a dark underbelly." Fielding accused Kevin Rudd of "feathering his own nest" by adding 86 staff members to his department, following an increase of 60 staffers last year. "It's like a gangster that actually feathers his own nest but actually hits hard at families." On a slow day, Fielding's comments -- probably rehearsed while shaving -- might have got some traction. Perhaps he's experiencing relevance-deprivation syndrome.

Here we go again

ANOTHER Liberal, Russell Broadbent, reckons Labor has rebadged old money, a trick learned from the NSW Labor Party, which has made an art form of announcing the same transport initiative it announced last year and the year before.

Bye and bye

KATE Ellis has cemented her enviable record as the federal minister with the highest staff turnover, with news yesterday that yet another staffer was departing her office. Press secretary Jayne Stinson (the partner of Stephen Mullighan, who is chief-of-staff to South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley) has announced via email she is leaving the Sports and Youth Minister's office. "It was bound to happen -- the magnetic pull of Parliament House has finally drawn me in," Stinson wrote. "So next week I'm departing fabulous Adelaide and heading to chilly Canberra to work for the very newsworthy Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor." At least she's keeping herself in-house. Last month it was revealed Ellis is one of Australia's most demanding bosses, with a 130 per cent staff turnover rate.

Resorting to luxury

THE last time Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett took his Labor colleagues on a country "retreat" he copped a frightful drubbing from The Mercury. The paper itemised the gourmet meals and mentioned the luxurious accommodation. This upset Bartlett, who got angry that he should be accused of waste at a time of economic crisis. So, he's trying to head off criticism by announcing another retreat at the five-star Tarraleah Lodge. "The session will . . . focus on the challenges facing Tasmania over the next four years." The cost is $165 a head, including meals. But he does not explain why they have to go to a country resort to workshop the state's woes.

Candid Cameron

THE Labor Party's website was still urging Poms residing in Australia to vote Labour while Kevin Rudd was congratulating David Cameron yesterday for becoming British Prime Minister. Cameron can look after himself, we reckon. The quotes file has several smart ripostes. On Tony Blair, Cameron said: "He was the future once." And "the sound of modern Britain is a complex harmony, not a male voice choir". But he draws enemy fire too. Gordon Brown said: "The more he talks, the less he says." And Labour maverick Tam Dalyell: "An actor who has never had a proper job."

Pillow talk

BRITAIN'S new Deputy Prime Minister Lib Dems leader Nick Clegg was the star of the election campaign. But he had to shake off a throwaway line he gave in a 2008 interview with GQ magazine. "I don't think I'm particularly brilliant or particularly bad [in bed]," he offered. He admitted there had been other women in his life apart from his wife, Miriam Gonzales Durantez. He was asked how many. "Are we talking about 10, 20, 30?" Clegg replied: "No more than 30. It's a lot less than that." The Sun, naturally, had a headline re-naming him "Nick Clegg-over".

The hard cell

SOUTH Australian Infrastructure Minister Pat Conlon likes a quip. He joked at a recent conference that if the financial crisis means cutting services, prisons will be first on the chopping board. Last year, colleague Kevin Foley said he was comfortable with the government "racking, packing and stacking" prisoners, three to a room, if necessary.