Rocky and a hard place

THE Sydney Morning Herald has been causing some amusement in NSW Labor circles.

THE Sydney Morning Herald has been causing some amusement in NSW Labor circles.

As part of its continuing quest to dig up links between the ALP and the killing of colourful property developer Michael McGurk, the SMH ran a yarn on Lucky Gattellari, a former pugilist now gainfully employed as the director of a number of companies owned by McGurk rival Ron Medich. It's filled with spicy ingredients - gun confiscation, mock-Tudor architecture - but it never quite gets around to mentioning that Lucky's brother Rocky Gattellari was once a political candidate in western Sydney's Cabramatta for ... the Liberal Party. (Boxer Rocky was scheduled to run against Labor's Reba Meagher, and all went well until he suggested he was going to "kick Reba Meagher's arse". Disendorsement followed shortly thereafter.) It's possible the Herald is so distracted putting the shiv into Fairfax chairman Ron Walker, it forgot.

Rome's holy roller

WITH the excitement about Brendan Nelson and Kim Beazley's forthcoming gigs, you may be wondering how Tim Fischer - one of the PM's earlier bipartisan diplomatic appointments - is going. Strewth recently enjoyed the slightly surreal experience of a phone chat with Fischer when the former deputy PM was in Tripoli, representing us at the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution. But what about his gig in Rome as ambassador to the Holy See? He gets the thumbs up from Lesley-Anne Knight, the Rome-based general-secretary of Catholic charity Caritas Internationalis. Asked about His Timness, Knight told the National Press Club: "Tim Fischer in Rome has almost become a landmark already. He walks around with an Australian hat on and that in Rome is a very welcome sight. He's made an enormous difference, he's a huge champion for Australia and he's a great ally for those of us in any aspect of poverty and development around the world. So thank you for sending Tim Fischer to Rome. He's a terrific mate." Just don't get him started on trains and everything should be OK.

Back in business

KEVIN Naughton, the former Liberal spin doctor at the centre of a fake ALP documents affair that cost South Australian Liberal MP Martin Hamilton-Smith the leadership of the state opposition, has re-emerged in a new role as a business reporter for Adelaide rag The Independent Weekly. Naughton and Hamilton-Smith are being sued for defamation in three separate actions by senior ALP figures over the scandal, although Naughton is covered by a taxpayer immunity. Naughton is a former ABC radio drive-time host and one-time chief of staff for News Limited's Sunday Mail in Adelaide. Sadly, his new bosses at the Independent insist he "won't be allowed anywhere near politics".

Another moving story

LOOKING for a house imbued with luck, a gentle aura of a life charmed? The East Melbourne home of Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding - he who was lost, but then was found (Amazing Grace on the count of three) amid the semi-arctic conditions of Mt Feathertop - is on the market via the good offices of Caine real estate for somewhere in the $1.5 million-$2.5m bracket. Which is a large bracket.

Henson in the frame

THANK you of the week goes to the comedy gods who saw to it that David Marr's book on Kevin Rudd's least favourite photo artist, Bill Henson, got on to the nonfiction shortlist for the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Award. And "no thank you" of the week goes to the multitude of Chinese manufacturers of neck ties, who have discovered Strewth after our repeated musings on the topic this week and started spamming like there's no tomorrow. It's been educational, but you can stop now.