Right guy for the chamber

THE Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Western Australia's most active conservative lobby group, has a track record of campaigning against state Labor governments.

THE Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Western Australia's most active conservative lobby group, has a track record of campaigning against state Labor governments.

Its links to the conservative side of politics led the Liberal Party to pursue former CCI chief executive John Langoulant as a possible candidate for the leadership of WA's somewhat shambolic parliamentary Liberal Party. Langoulant declined and is now working as chief executive of Kerry Stokes's Australian Capital Equity. His successor at the CCI is to be James Pearson, government and public affairs local manager for international oil and gas giant Chevron. Before joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade some years ago, Pearson was active in student politics at the University of Western Australia and president of the Labor Club. CCI members will be pleased to hear he is no longer a member of the ALP.

Only the lonely

IT is nice to see Fairfax Media journalists are getting into the swing of things -- corporate-wise -- and indulging in a bit of in-house cross-promotion. The Sydney Morning Herald's Paul Sheehan, who has an intense dislike of being mentioned in Strewth, amused his readers yesterday with an opinion page article in which he extolled the benefits of having an affair for women living in "an arid marriage or partnership". Sheehan recounted the experiences of five of his female friends, including novelist Gabrielle Carey, who had sought out new male companions. And where did most of them look for their mates? The online dating service RSVP, owned by Fairfax Media, which Sheehan mentioned four times.

Which side are you on?

ALP backbencher Bernie Ripoll, who wandered into Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's office in Parliament House last week looking for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, was given the opportunity during question time yesterday to ask Wayne Swan a dorothy dixer. So we can assume he is not confused about the Treasurer's identity. Unless he thought he was questioning Peter Costello.

The mess they left behind

STAFF of the former Howard government's communication unit left their office looking like a pigsty, according to Labor senator Robert Ray. He says the suite occupied by the Government Members Secretariat, a unit that co-ordinated the Coalition's communication strategy, was smeared with food and damaged by indoor cricket games. "Is it true it took the cleaners four days to clean up that pigsty of leftover stale food and muck?" Ray asked Department of Parliamentary Services assistant secretary John Nakkan in a Senate estimates hearing yesterday. "I want to know what the repair bill was to that set of suites from the playing of indoor cricket because I have 55 photos of the damage that was done." Nakkan says he is not aware of any damage but promises to check with the cleaners. Ray also has the bat and ball. "And what's more, I've got the stumps in my office, which happens to be a Mark Vaile poster."

The informal deputy

CANBERRA observers are bemused by how Deputy PM Julia Gillard refers to Kevin Rudd. Traditionally everyone on the government side of politics refers to the prime minister as just that: 'I'll be discussing that with the prime minister tomorrow." Gillard refers to Kev08 as Kevin. "What Kevin has specifically said, of course, is that he did not canvass with Mr (Brian) Burke his support for the Labor leadership, that's the central allegation here, and Kevin's well and truly answered it," she said on Sunday. The disgraced WA premier gets a Mr, the PM gets Kevin. Obviously mates.

Spotted where he wasn't

IT is not just the probably extinct Tassie tiger that prompts claims of unlikely sightings on the Apple Isle. The Mercury yesterday ran a prominent story on page3 claiming that former AFL star Wayne Carey, who failed to appear at a court hearing in Florida last Friday (US time), was holed up in a house at Tranmere, a suburb about 10km from Hobart. The yarn said the paper received an anonymous tip-off on Sunday from "someone who claimed her friend" saw the ex-Kangaroos captain at a rental open house on Saturday, about the same time Carey was listed to appear in the Dade County court house in Miami. The Mercury staked out the house on Sunday and found a bloke who said he was an acquaintance of Carey and his girlfriend, Tasmanian model Kate Neilson. While the Hobart tabloid ran its exclusive yarn, other media outfits reported Carey was in Thailand.

[e-mail]