Nous and noir

FOR those who didn't read this august organ's letters page yesterday (shame!), NSW Premier Kristina Keneally responded to our colleague Imre Salusinszky's Raymond Chandler-esque musings on the state election by channelling the noir master herself.

FOR those who didn't read this august organ's letters page yesterday (shame!), NSW Premier Kristina Keneally responded to our colleague Imre Salusinszky's Raymond Chandler-esque musings on the state election by channelling the noir master herself.

So unexpected a flourish was this that we sent a nice email. Here's Keneally's reply: "The Lady accepted the compliment but noted the gentleman's name. Journalists - she knew from experience they could turn on the charm faster than a desal-supplied water tap, and then twist it off when their thirst for off-the-record comment had been momentarily quenched. Clearly, he was someone of whom to be wary." Fair comment. Keneally adds, "Imre was right: this is addictive. However, despite his suggestions, I will not be delivering my campaign launch speech this weekend in Chandleresque style." Bugger.

The missing L-word

ONE minor sport provided by the imminent NSW election is seeing which Labor candidates obscure their political affiliation and what lengths they go to in this endeavour. Education Minister Verity Firth, for example, does display an ALP logo on her pamphlets and on her regularly and enthusiastically defaced placards; not an eye-catching one, but it's there. Community Services Minister Linda Burney is taking a different tack, cranking out a four-page A4 pamphlet - and a lovely thing it is, too - in which she almost entirely successfully avoids the L-word, only stumbling in a small way on the last page. And although even colleagues such as Carmel Tebbutt are still providing their official ALP email addresses in their literature, Burney avoids such mistakes and opts for Hotmail. Mercifully, no Labor logo appears on a press release from Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan, who may have chosen the wrong climate in which to deploy the following imagery: "Minister for Emergency Services Steve Whan fears that opposition spokesperson Melinda Pavey is missing and may need a search party."

Sober as a deacon

FOR those needing it, further proof of Kevin Rudd's non-averageness was on display on Wednesday night when he followed up a long St Patrick's eve dinner in Brisbane - where both he and Tony "Love Rug" Abbott were in fine comedic form - with a sober appearance on Lateline. Rudd being Rudd, he creamed every acronym with confidence and precision; just try saying IAEA repeatedly after a long session St Patting and have it not come out as EIEIO. What's his secret? A spokesman for Rudd tells Strewth, "While Mr Rudd is a supporter of the Irish economy, including Ireland's liquid exports, his ministerial commitments did not allow him to support it on this particular occasion."

Pollie japery

LOVE Rug pushed on with St Pat's duties yesterday, concluding his speech to the St Patrick's Day luncheon at Sydney's Lansdowne Club: "I think we should all enjoy St Patrick's Day, celebrate all things Irish. But there is one thing we must remember on a day such as this: work is the curse of the drinking classes." Nothing if not a welcome antidote to Julia Gillard's paeans to folks who set their alarm clocks early. The PM also got into the jolly spirit at the same event: "Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition; it's great to see a bloke who loves his job, isn't it? I'll do my best to keep him in it for as long as I can. . . . Barry O'Farrell, also Leader of the [NSW] Opposition, I hope you have more fun today than you do Saturday week." Also, she didn't say "negosiate", which was nice.

Bitar twist

READER Leon Fitzgerald tells us he was taken aback when watching the Melbourne edition of the ABC's 7pm news bulletin on Wednesday night. The story of ALP national secretary Karl Bitar's resignation was, briefly at least, accompanied by footage of serious civil unrest. Just when Fitzgerald feared the citizenry was taking Big Karl's departure extremely badly, it turned out to be some mistimed footage from Bahrain. But it probably felt true.

Take this, Aunty

THE Spectator Australia's editor Tom Switzer is a generous man, and one manifestation of this generosity is his willingness - anytime, anywhere - to provide a boot to put into the ABC. But his leader column in the latest Spectator - "Two cheers for Aunty" - has us worried Switzer might have taken leave of his senses. We clung for a moment to the possibility he meant two Bronx cheers, in which case it would have been business as usual, but we soon realised this was not the case; indeed, he was defending Q&A for "ambushing" Julia Gillard with that video question from Julian Assange: "Yes, it may have been a bit of a set-up, but early on in the WikiLeaks saga Ms Gillard did make some pretty strong statements about Mr Assange. Natural justice would seem to dictate that he get a chance to reply and ask some questions of his own, whatever one thinks of his website. Q&A does a lot of things wrong, and its audience and often its panel skew to the left. But credit where it is due, and in this case all credit to Tony Jones and his team." Everything OK, Tom? And someone check Tony is OK, too.

James Jeffrey