One of the boys

OUR recent democratic excitement has, rightly or wrongly, brought back memories for some of the ALP's "36 faceless men", who, helpfully for Robert Menzies, kept then ALP leader Arthur Calwell and his deputy Gough Whitlam waiting for their instructions under a streetlight outside Canberra's Kingston Hotel in 1963 - where they were duly photographed.

OUR recent democratic excitement has, rightly or wrongly, brought back memories for some of the ALP's "36 faceless men", who, helpfully for Robert Menzies, kept then ALP leader Arthur Calwell and his deputy Gough Whitlam waiting for their instructions under a streetlight outside Canberra's Kingston Hotel in 1963 - where they were duly photographed.

It seems only right in the present climate to note they were in fact 35 faceless men and one faceless woman. Thanks to Ross Fitzgerald, co-author of the biography of journalist Alan 'The Red Fox' Reid, we know it was Tasmanian delegate Phyllis Benjamin, who, it must be said, doesn't appear particularly faceless. In fact, looking at her threads, her hair and her glasses, one could be forgiven for thinking Benjamin was secretly the mother of three powerful women: Julia Gillard, Bronwyn Bishop and Edna Everage.

Big bad Tone

SPEAKING of Tasmania, Tony Abbott was there yesterday and demonstrating that after months of clinging to his great big new tax, he, like the Labor Party, was ready to evolve: "Look, this is a big bad tax. That's what it is, it's a big bad tax and it doesn't matter what you do to it, it will still be a big bad tax." Coming to you soon in rap form.

Whine and dine

THERE'LL be a fundraising shindig tonight for Julia Gillard at Brisbane's Theodore Club (named, happily, after Edward "Red Ted" Theodore), organised by Queensland Labor's Sharon Neame. The last such event she helmed was in December, a dinner to mark the 20th anniversary of the election of the Goss government. The invitation featured a 1989 photo of Wayne Goss's then chief of staff, Kevin Rudd ("in happier days", to use the old chestnut). Rudd will be in Brisbane as well, following his departure last night from the Lodge, though whether he'll be hanging around outside the door hinting he'd like to be let in remains to be seen. Meanwhile, one Lib apparently unwilling to let go of Rudd is Christopher Pyne, whose latest court circular has popped into his constituents' letterboxes. Much space is devoted to putting the boot into Rudd and his government.

The secret gardener

AFTER so many years when the world has made bugger-all sense, this Russian spy business in the US feels like a welcome return to old-fashioned values. Especially if it keeps yielding quotes of unalloyed magnificence, such as this one in The New York Times: "Jessie Gugigi, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against [alleged spy Cynthia Murphy], who was an accomplished gardener. 'They couldn't have been spies,' Ms Gugigi said. 'Look what she did with the hydrangeas.' " Moving right along, does this mean the Russians misinterpreted the "reset" button Hillary Clinton presented them with last year? If it's really a case of back to the future, we will have to overlook Pravda's descent into deranged tabloid irrelevance and see what the old Communist Party organ has to say about the world. Happily, they've been paying attention to events in Canberra, with a headline declaring, "Australian prime minister 'pierced' on ecology", which is a gentle way of saying Kevin Rudd got shafted over the ETS. The English translation, however, features a headline that keeps its focus firmly, if a little oddly, on Rudd's successor: "Australia's New Ptime (sic) Minister To Face Severe Unfeminine Problems." What those unfeminine problems are is never made clear, but we are apparently the "green continent".

First impressions

NSW Community Services Minister Linda Burney has objected to a billboard ad erected near Sydney airport by extramarital dating agency Ashley Madison, which implores all to deal with life's brevity with a fling. Says Burney: "Visitors to Sydney, whether professionals, business people, tourists or families arriving in Sydney on holidays, will encounter this prominent message immediately upon leaving the airport. Is this the way we wish to greet them?" Rest assured, minister, the billboard is redundant; anyone driving past it after paying their airport car park fee already feels more than sufficiently screwed.

Rugg's revenge

THE lingering vision of Barnaby Joyce with that ranga rug adorning his reluctant bonce, courtesy of Magda Szubanski, on ABC1's Q&A the other night has reminded us, in a roundabout way, that we must congratulate Kevin Rugg. Rugg, arguably the Don Bradman of letters to the editor, informs us that he will "no longer have to endure the wags of my senior English class demanding: 'Sir, where's my free computer?' "

So that's something.