Scandal hunt

OPPOSITION climate action spokesman Greg Hunt may get a bit fired up sometimes in parliament, but there's a time and a place.

OPPOSITION climate action spokesman Greg Hunt may get a bit fired up sometimes in parliament, but there's a time and a place.

Appearing on Sky News' Australian Agenda yesterday, he was pressed on the topic of The Sunday Telegraph's story about an unnamed federal Labor minister allegedly indulging in "poor conduct" of an unspecified nature. Not a huge amount to go on, but Hunt was alarmingly measured and reasonable: "I am very, very old school on this. I think that Australia is different to the US and different to Britain. Australians are much more relaxed. If it is affecting somebody's public office, then it's a matter for public concern. If it's not affecting public office, I think Australians are pretty low-key. We're perhaps not as relaxed as the French are, where it's almost obligatory that something goes on."

Vans Australia fair

SAYING no to Tim Fischer, our ambassador to the Holy See, not only feels unnatural, it's beyond our earthly powers, so we pass on this message: "I write to say thanks to the thousands of good natured Australians who visited Rome for the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, also my thanks for the liaison and specific support of many, including from all of the large media contingent present. I salute the fact there were no arrests and only 12 passports stolen from the thousands of Australian visitors [That's one wallet per apostle, so it doesn't sound so bad.] The extra consular support and the mobile consular van 'Kanga Two' worked a treat and was appreciated by many visiting Australians as they passed by en route to and from St Peter's Square." Kanga Two?

Hughes your daddy

NEVER mind six degrees of separation, jazz musician and lapsed journalist Dick Hughes often struggles to make it past two. Take, for example, You Only Live Twice, the documentary about Hughes's family, not least his father, foreign correspondent, Richard Hughes. It's up for an AFI award, as is the documentary Kokoda, which happens to feature Hughes's son-in-law, Sean Barker, as war correspondent Chester Wilmot. Hughes tells Strewth that when he went to Wilmot's memorial service in 1954, he met Noel Monks, the first reporter on the scene after the Luftwaffe's bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Monks's youngest daughter, Sarah Monks, scored Richard Hughes as her godfather and went on to (a) appear in You Only Live Twice and (b) become godmother to Hughes the Younger's daughter, Vashti. On another note (yes, that is a tepid musical pun), Hughes and daughter Christa Hughes are up for an ARIA award this week for their album, 21st Century Blues. The title, incidentally, came from Barker. Let the circle be unbroken.

An unlikely union

AUSTRALIAN Workers Union national secretary and renowned faceless man Paul Howes is suffering the emotional equivalent of shifting tectonic plates. It started a few days back when he read Miranda Devine and tweeted: "It pains me to say it, but this is a good column." Devine in turn tweeted, "Well, I have to admit I quite like the @howespaul column. But don't tell anyone." A fluke? Howes yesterday dispelled the possibility: "Aghhh again I enjoyed Miranda's column - scary." Devine responded with a civil backhander: "Why thank you, Mr H. Grains of truth in your column too." Time will tell if it can ever match the tortured romance between Harry Jenkins and Christopher Pyne, but something beautiful is blossoming.

Jazz crackers

US saxophonist Branford Marsalis, (brother of Wynton Marsalis) has been in Melbourne with Paul Grabowsky, recording a soundtrack for Fred Schepisi's film, The Eye of the Storm. During a break in recording, they rang The Australian's deputy arts editor, Ashleigh Wilson, for a chat. Grabowsky passed the phone to Schepisi, who passed it to Marsalis (jazz royalty, Wilson assures us), who came on with a soft, raspy, and uncharacteristic whisper:

Marsalis: "Hello."

Wilson: "Hello?"

Marsalis (still in the raspy voice): "Hi."

Wilson: "Um, Branford?"

Marsalis: "Yeah. (Pause.) I'm being Miles Davis. (Then in his real voice.) How's it going, dude?" Ah, musos.

That's shoe business

IT'S a rare week when Strewth doesn't mentally picture former Soviet leader Nikita "Tanks for the memories" Khrushchev banging his shoe on the lectern at the UN; it's the Cold War vaudeville equivalent of having a tune stuck in your head. And yes, we are seeking help. We suspect The Spectator Australia editor Tom Switzer suffers the same problem, but he's put it to good use, writing of that sole-bearing moment on last week's Q & A: "In debating, there is a phenomenon known as Godwin's Law: invoke Hitler, lose the argument. There ought to be a corollary to this - call it Khrushchev's Law - which states that taking off your shoe, or any other piece of clothing, to prove a point only proves that you don't have a winning point to make." We don't want to rule out all items of clothing, but Switzer's on to something.