Strewth: Bill Shorten hands out wife’s cookbook on hospital visit

Bill Shorten brought a copy of his wife’s new cookbook to a hospital tour after a special request.

Bill Shorten has been very supportive of his wife’s new cookbook and now he’s handing it out to everyday Aussies. The Opposition Leader’s office confirmed yesterday that Shorten gave wife Chloe’s latest tome, The Secret Ingredient,to a male patient at Sunshine Hospital in northwest Melbourne on Wednesday. The patient had told a member of Shorten’s staff the previous day that he had seen Chloe on the news launching her book and was keen to read it. So the Labor leader, visiting with opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King, delivered it personally. A gesture we’re sure the man, who it’s understood is on dialysis, greatly appreciated.

Bolt talks Roo

Andrew Bolt has revealed exclusively to Strewth what it was like to be inside a giant kangaroo. Our James Jeffrey wrote yesterday about a young Bolt, then a reporter at The Age, riding inside a 13m tall kangaroo called Matilda at the opening ceremony for the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games (for work, not for fun). Bolt has told Strewth his trip inside Matilda was pretty special. “The best bit was the fun of doing something different off my own bat, and seeing an opening ceremony through a hole the size of a 50c coin,” he says. “It felt a very individual way of being part of a collective. Being part of but not quite. I’d also struggled to find my feet as a journalist and I kind of felt I was being one.” The Sky News host and News Corp columnist makes politicians shake in their boots but Matilda’s crew may have a different view of Bolt. “I particularly liked giving the people driving the kangaroo a slab of beer for letting me inside. Could you negotiate such access like that now?”

Glasgow Coast Games

The Games may be on the Gold Coast but its opening ceremony was surprisingly Scottish. Not only did we hear the rolling r’s of Commonwealth Games Federation chief Louise Martin (from Glasgow); there also was a lot of Scots rock and/or roll played. When the Australian team came out for the crowds, the songs Evie by Stevie Wright and Down Under by Men at Work accompanied them. Evie’s co-writer, George Young,was born in Cranhill, Glasgow. Down Under was co-written and sung by Colin Hay, who hails from North Ayrshire. More evidence Scots have markedly improved Australia. As Robert Burns once said of this proud race: “Here’s tae us. Wha’s like us? Damn few and they’re a’deid.”

Cooking with sass

Mark Latham and Alan Jones will be launching their cookbook Convervsations in the Kitchen next Wednesday in Sydney. Strewth has confirmed audience members will be offered treats made by the former Labor leader and the shock-jock-in-chief. We assume the co-authors also will be eating, so it’ll be a rare opportunity to see Jones and Latham with their mouths completely shut.

Mayoral melee

Nominations opened yesterday for Melbourne’s lord mayoral election, to be held next month. Everyone was a bit shy about putting their hands up for Robert Doyle’s job when he fell over after sexual misconduct allegations. But now many people are changing their minds. Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood ruled himself out of the contest months back but yesterday he told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell he was getting a lot of requests to run and that he wanted a “strong field”. That can’t be much of a consolation to Property Council chief Sally Capp, who has been considered the frontrunner. Former The Monthly editor Sally Warhaft has nominated to run. She’s now an academic but famously exited the leftie magazine in 2009 after a huge falling out with publisher Morry Schwartz and the mag’s then chairman Robert Manne,despite lifting its circulation from 5000 to 30,000. Labor-linked candidate Jennifer Yang also wants the job.

Churchill Forum?

Debate rages over whether the Monash Forum (a Coalition ginger group definitely not set up to destabilise Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, nuh uhh, no sir) should change its name. Descendants of Sir John Monash berated conservative MPs who want to set up a government-owned coal plant for taking the moniker of the famous Aussie general. Strewth reckons Tony Abbott, Craig Kelly and co. should name their gang after another Allied forces figure: Winston Churchill. Why? Because Melbourne’s now-defunct Hazelwood coal-power plant is next to a place called Churchill. The small suburb, named after the forementioned British prime minister, was where a lot of coal plant workers used to go to get lunch. We’re sure the people of Churchill (and the big man himself) would approve of the change.