Liberally derided

JOEL Scalzi has been on reality TV and on the receiving end of talkback radio; guess which was harder?

JOEL Scalzi has been on reality TV and on the receiving end of talkback radio; guess which was harder?

Scalzi is the radio reporter and son of former Liberal MP Joe Scalzi who infiltrated the crowd of handpicked swinging voters at Rooty Hill RSL to ask Tony Abbott a question (and invite him over for a movie night). Since then, he's been derided as a Liberal stooge and felt the steel-capped Blundstone of public opinion up the clacker. "I've been on Big Brother and it didn't affect me as much as this," Scalzi laments to Strewth, putting things in perspective. "I've been unfairly branded. I'm not a Liberal member, I'm not even a Young Liberal." Well, he was a Young Lib once, but Scalzi says it only lasted a year and was an act of family solidarity when his dad was a member of the South Australian parliament. Scalzi insists he's a swinging voter these days and had wanted to ask the same question of Julia Gillard. Happily, he's doing his best to take it on the chin. "I got my question in, and I've got the chance of watching The Notebook with Tony Abbott." Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes.

Passionate presenter

FOR questioning of a more robust nature, we turn to presenter Pete Davies on Darwin's 104.9 MIX FM and his chat with Peter Garrett yesterday.

Davies: "I wished and I wished and I wished and look what happened, walked through the door federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett. Good morning and welcome."

Garrett: "Morning, Peter."

Davies: "Nice to have you in Darwin and thanks for taking the time to pop in and have a chat."

Garrett: "No worries."

Davies: "Last week that perennial sick bag, Bob Brown, rolled into Darwin and what he may as well have done to Emma Young, his Greens candidate here in Darwin, was taken her out the back paddock and shot her by announcing even more marine parks being established around the Australian coastline, in particular across the northern part of Australia. We're fairly passionate about our recreational fishing here."

Wisely, Garrett answered: "I know that."

Rein's enthusiasm

CONGRATULATIONS to Jessica Rudd for scoring the cover of Good Weekend to help publicise Campaign Ruby, her debut novel, which proved eerily prescient about her father's political fate. As she reveals in the interview, her mother, Therese Rein, read the manuscript as Jessica wrote it. And it was at some point in those heady days before Kevin Rudd's prime ministership was suddenly Marked, Shortened and Gillardined that Rein read the chapter in which the fictional PM gets lopped by his fictional female deputy. Rein's reaction? "Oooh, loved that! When can you send me the next one?"

Pat in the back

BACK in May, we asked Malcolm Turnbull how he felt about news that self-described serial fringe candidate Pat Sheil was to stand against him once more in the battle for Wentworth, NSW. Turnbull had been in a chipper mood until that moment, but then, as a darkness fell across his face, snuffing out the light that had danced in his eyes, he intoned frostily, "I don't think he stands a chance." Most of us, not least Sheil, one of democracy's most dedicated kamikazes, are only too aware of this; so why such a cold, po-faced dismissal? Was the Earl of Wentworth merely having a kindness-through-cruelty moment? Or was he perhaps protesting just a little too much, secretly aware that this time, Sheil's quest wasn't quixotic? Having seen Sheil's campaign video, in which the dressing-gown clad Sheil begins loftily, before sliding down a booze-slicked slope to abusiveness, we're leaning towards the latter. As Sheil vows to Strewth, "There will be more video, and there are many barrels yet to be scraped. There will be shock announcements just prior to polling day."

First feed your sole

ENIGMATIC message of the day, courtesy of the note to journalists following Julia Gillard to an inner Sydney building site yesterday: "Please wear fat, enclosed shoes for the visit."

Penny lifts a brow

WHILE we watch Mark Latham with a strangely growing urge to give him a hug and buy him a beer, we're growing more concerned for Penny Wong. Yesterday, during a lengthy interview on the ABC, the monotonal, molasses slick of her speech barely flickered as she described a wind farm as "a really exciting project". And she moved an eyebrow. At this rate, we can soon expect a joke from Andrew Robb. Or Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne billycart racing together. Hang on . . .

Campaign antidote

SUFFERING from election campaign fatigue? Sure, a week's a long time in politics, but it can be a bloody aeon during a campaign. But if you're in search of an antidote, go no further than The Northern Territory News. To give you a sense of the admirable magnitude of its campaign avoidance, we present for your delectation the two headlines from yesterday's front page: "This dog thinks he's a chicken" and the timeless "Man bashed by prawn".

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