Strewth: classic portrayal

Michael Danby faces the electoral abyss and he’s turned to a great man of history for inspiration.

Michael Danby faces the electoral abyss and he’s turned to a great man of history for inspiration. The embattled federal Labor MP for Melbourne Ports is under a lot of pressure to stand down at the next election. The once-safe seat is now in sight of the Liberals and the Greens. Damaging stories about Danby appear nearly every day, from taxpayer-funded trips with his wife to putting out adverts attacking an ABC reporter. And there was that time when his Labor colleagues thought he was off sick, but he was actually in Israel. But a Strewth agent has told us Danby is totally chill and, in fact, he recently went to Classic Cinema in Elsternwick to see Gary Oldman’s award-winning performance as wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour.

And who was tagged with him on Facebook? Labor young guns and potential successors Nick Dyrenfurth and Josh Burns. Dyrenfurth, a regular writer for The Monthly and head of the John Curtin Research Centre, has been a rumoured Melbourne Ports candidate but it’s believed he doesn’t want to run. Burns, a dashing staffer for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, is seemingly keen to take Danby’s spot (whether it’s a clean succession or a branch coup). Maybe Danby invited these young men so they could both listen to Churchill’s rousing words and get Danby’s position on preselection into their heads. “We will never surrender.”

Facebook noir.

Bad buggers

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has kicked off the latest instalment of the history wars by declaring he wants to change the date of Australia Day. Di Natale says it’s because many indigenous Australians find celebrating the arrival of the First Fleet — which was pretty rubbish for them — offensive and divisive. But Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce thinks the Greens’ enmity towards January 26 comes from a darker place. “They think Lachlan Macquarie and James Cook were bad buggers,” he told reporters yesterday at Peak Hill. Cook and Macquarie were both in the British Imperial Army but we cannot prove buggery. As for being bad, Macquarie did order a massacre of Aboriginal people at Appin in 1816. Joyce also said the Greens are focused on Australia Day because they “dwell in the philosophical”. Big words from a man whose Coalition nearly tore itself apart over the meaning of marriage.

Peak Hill peril

Joyce was also asked about Hawaii’s close shave with nuclear war. The US island state’s Governor David Ige is under pressure after his administration mistakenly put out an alert to millions saying a ballistic missile was headed their way. So, are the people of regional NSW prepared for Armageddon? The Deputy Prime Minister said simply: “There are no missile alerts in Peak Hill.”

Turnbull in Tokyo

Malcolm Turnbull is making his first international trip of the year this week. The Prime Minister will spend Thursday in Japan for security and trade talks with Shinzo Abe. It’s not known if Turnbull will meet the Emperor. If so, our fearless leader would be one of the last heads of government in the world to meet Emperor Akihito. The 84-year-old monarch is abdicating in April, almost two years after he announced his intention to step down. He’ll be replaced by his son, Naruhito, who’ll be only the third man to sit on the Chrysanthemum Throne since the end of World War II. Turnbull’s office is tight-lipped on what he’ll be up to in Tokyo, but said there would be a “few other events” as well as his talks with Abe. Strewth suggests he checks out the hotel with a life-size Godzilla sticking out of it.

Elections cutie

You may know Antony Green as the king of election night but did you know he was also a dreamboat? The ABC’s elections analyst put up this pic of a fresh-faced 19 year-old him on Twitter yesterday: “Passing through my hobbit phase ...” Hobbit? Nah. We’re sure Green was busy breaking hearts back then, instead of working out preference flows in marginal seats.

Antony Green’s poll pose.