Optimistic MP

IT might be simple insouciance on beleaguered Belinda Neal's part, but Strewth is hypnotised by the federal MP for Robertson's carefree attempt to hire a media officer within sight of an election being called.

IT might be simple insouciance on beleaguered Belinda Neal's part, but Strewth is hypnotised by the federal MP for Robertson's carefree attempt to hire a media officer within sight of an election being called.

The successful applicant would have a short career because the Labor Party has chosen Deborah O'Neill to stand for the very marginal seat. The job ad has started speculation that Neal will stand as an independent and sweep all before her on the sympathy vote. Or she is manoeuvring to jump into state politics, the parlous condition of NSW Labor notwithstanding. "I've made no decision about my future," Neal told Sky News yesterday. "Obviously I was elected in 2007 to represent the people of Robertson . . . I continue to represent them, work hard and deliver for the central coast and really, that's all that is on my mind at the moment." That is all that is on her mind. One thing that should be on her mind is unemployment. "It's the most marginally held seat in Australia, in fact I only won it after an 18-month campaign by 185 votes," Neal notes with a hint of realism.

Crean slips down

AFTER only a day as third pollie in the pecking order, Simon Crean has been relegated to the alphabetic part of the federal ministry media contact list, but his name's still out of sync. Strewth yesterday exclusively revealed that Crean had been listed at No 3, a promotion we speculated might explain his wide smile. He's now jammed in between Kate Ellis and Craig Emerson, thereby reinstating the natural order in which the seniority list goes from Julia Gillard to Wayne Swan to Chris Evans to Joe Ludwig before listing ministers from Mark Arbib to Penny Wong. Hang on - Ludwig is at No 4? We know being manager of government business in the Senate is a highly responsible job with onerous duties, but should he be ahead of the pack? Perhaps his high standing is a reflection of his connections with the Australian Workers Union.

Hungry for info

SOUTH Australia's colourful Treasurer Kevin Foley is well into the second week of an overseas trade mission, on which he has taken his media adviser Fiona Webber. Yet the only media that has been generated during the trip has been a story in the Adelaide Sunday Mail gossip section about Webber's loose-lipped Twitter feed, which included the tactful tweet: "I had to eat lunch at parliament. It is so disgusting in there." Perhaps sensing an image problem, Webber yesterday finally acquiesced to requests from journalists for information about the progress of the trip, emailing a list of highlights, which consisted of a series of meetings with defence-related businesses and officials. Coming up is a meeting with Kim Beazley, now the Australian ambassador to the US. At least she will get a decent feed at the Beazley embassy.

They love our dill

IT'S not too often that an Australian dill makes an impression on the world's media but NSW idiot Michal Newman's attempt to pat a crocodile has made it on to the BBC and into several North American and British newspapers. All he wanted to do was feel 5m Fatso's skin while the animal was dozing in a Broome croc park. Booze is believed to have influenced Newman's brain snap. In Darwin, the Northern Territory News was suitably proud of Fatso who, the paper boasts, is a native of the Territory, having been caught 20 years ago in the Victoria River, because he had been stalking dinghies and fishermen. He was shipped off to Broome, where he went on a hunger strike.

A serve for Barnett

ONE of Strewth's correspondents in the west is feeling sorry for Tony Abbott because the nation's only Liberal Premier expects Julia Gillard to win the election for Labor. Asked on local ABC radio yesterday if he thought the new PM would pull Labor over the line, Colin Barnett gave Gillard a very un-Liberal tick. "Yes, I think she can get re-elected," he declared. But the West Australian Premier, who turns 60 today, copped a backhander from a caller moments later: "Colin, I always think you've had a good head on your shoulders, not necessarily photographically, but certainly intellectually." Barnett tried joshing: "OK. I'll just go jump out the window now."

Bonehead no racist

:IT is heartwarming to see actress Whoopi Goldberg saying nice things about Mel Gibson, who is accused of uttering foul racist insults towards his Hispanic cleaning lady and making threats of violence - and committing acts of violence - against the mother of his daughter. His rants and threats are on tape and available on the internet, but so far as Goldberg is concerned, he's just a bonehead. "I know Mel, and I know that he's not a racist," she says. "You can say he's being a bonehead, but I can't sit and say that he's a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids." As reported on this page yesterday, Goldberg also defended movie director Roman Polanski despite his conviction for sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in 1977. "I know it wasn't rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don't believe it was rape-rape," Goldberg says.