Now it's personal

JULIA Gillard may have been accused of being, ahem, overly pragmatic about older voters, but that hasn't stopped her joining Tony Abbott for a Q&A for the next issue of 50 something magazine.

JULIA Gillard may have been accused of being, ahem, overly pragmatic about older voters, but that hasn't stopped her joining Tony Abbott for a Q&A for the next issue of 50 something magazine.

After covering some of the pointier stuff, such as superannuation reform and non-violent means of getting us to work past the official pension age, they get down to the warm and fuzzies. Abbott, you'll not be surprised to learn, finds happiness in surfing, cycling and family holidays. For Gillard, joy is unwinding on a Friday night in with Tim Mathieson, a glass of wine and a lamb roast. If they weren't pollies, Gillard reckons she'd be a teacher and Abbott says he'd probably go with his earlier career and be a journalist. But the contrast is greater when asked who it is they admire. Gillard: "My greatest admiration is for my own Mum and Dad. They left a familiar life in a Welsh village to come to the other side of the world, to a place with a better climate for their four-year-old girl who had a bronchial complaint. They worked long and hard through their working lives to give the best opportunities for my sister Alison and I. They were a great example to me and they remain close friends as well as being Mum and Dad. I try to always make a point of calling Mum and Dad on Saturday to catch up with them no matter how frantic my week has been." Possibly worried a long answer will look like a profligate linguistic stimulus package, Abbott is more to the point: "John Howard, our soldiers in Afghanistan, country doctors and nurses." On a vaguely related note, we did, incidentally, see the Real Gillard passing by yesterday. And while she walked just like the prime ministerial stunt double who has apparently been foisted on us by mistake these past couple of weeks, she didn't quite sound the same. We must have heard her utter at least four sentences and not once did we hear "moving forward". Something's up.

Words apart

ANOTHER glorious slip of the keyboard, this time courtesy of Patrick Secker, the federal member for Barker. We assume Secker had "ravaged" in mind as he typed the opening paragraph to his press release yesterday, but something went ever so slightly awry: "The federal government needs to commit money to help Penola rebuild after a tornado ravished the township on Sunday." We're sure even Kevin Rudd would agree that rather knocks getting rat-f . . ked into a small, cocked hat.

Lumber hijacked

THERE may be more unfortunately placed political posters, but for the time being, our frontrunner is this one (right) of Greens senator Christine Milne, thoughtfully photographed by a Strewth field agent in its spot next to a truck stuffed as comprehensively as a Christmas turkey with chopped tree in Kingston, south of Hobart.

Malcolm's miracle

HE may be the most unflappably chipper candidate of this election campaign, but that doesn't mean Malcolm Turnbull shies away from confronting uncomfortable truths, nor does he flinch from urging others to do the same. Yesterday, for example, he was tweeting, "One of the sillier Athenian practices was choosing officials by random

draw (sortition) - did this inspire the citizens' assembly?", which was followed by: "For a chilling Athenian view of realpolitik, read the Melian Dialogue." So it was encouraging yet bracing to know that it was in this frame of mind that the Earl of Wentworth was hard at work "discussing [the] miracle of democracy

with years 5 and 6 at Bronte Public School". So did he give it to them straight or, as befits a miracle, in the form of a parable? Turnbull assures Strewth his audience was up to taking it raw: "The kids were very, very smart - for example, questions included how Kevin Rudd could be removed as PM without an election." And no,

there was no sugar-coating this brutal facet of the miracle. "I was very factual. Another question sought to explore how the membership of political parties is composed."

Great minds

IS Lindsay Tanner's seat of Melbourne suffering a slogan drought? There's Simon Olsen, the snowball's-chance-in-hell Liberal candidate who's opted to adapt one of the standard party slogans: "Standing up for Melbourne". Then there's Labor's candidate Cath Bowtell, who has gone with . . . drum roll . . . "Standing up for Melbourne".

Mix up at the printers?