Strewth: Watts on the beat

Labor MP Tim Watts has put on his press cap for the royal commission proceedings.

Tim Watts reporting. Picture: Sarah Matray

Some of Australia’s best journalists are covering the royal commission into financial services but that’s not good enough for one Labor MP. Tim Watts, the member for Gellibrand, attended hearings yesterday and live tweeted the proceedings. “I decided that I’d see it for myself, listen to the witnesses being questioned, and take in the feeling in the room,” Watts told Strewth. “It was a shocking experience.”

His Twitter thread (complete with pictures and the odd editorial comment) went on most of the day and got the approval of his leader, Bill Shorten, who shared it online. Strewth wonders where Watts was when Labor tried to set up its news website, the Labor Herald, a few years ago and was denied entry into the press gallery. Maybe they would have let in a fine reporter such as Watts. Who needs The Australian’s Richard Gluyas and Ben Butler?

Finance follies

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan hit out at the Opposition Leader’s chest-thumping over the banking royal commission yesterday. “It’s a bit rich of the Labor Party … Bill Shorten was the finance minister in 2013 when a lot of this was taking place,” he told Sky News. One problem there — Shorten has never been finance minister. It was Penny Wong in 2013.

Lobster lunacy

Matthew Guy was reunited with a big red friend yesterday. The Victorian Opposition Leader was visiting Ballarat when he was greeted by trade union protesters and a large inflatable lobster called Pinchy. Readers may remember Guy got in trouble several months ago for sharing a lobster dinner with an alleged mob boss. Strewth understands lobsters, big and small, will be Guy’s constant companions until November’s Victorian election.

Eddie enraged

Eddie McGuire wants to sue Facebook over erectile dysfunction. The Footy Show host has vowed to pursue the social media giant over a fake news article it shared claiming he was backing a drug that helped men … you know … and that he was doing it in partnership with US celebrity psychologist Dr Phil. He most definitely was not. “Clearly this is defamatory against me and it’s illegal to use someone’s likeness and purport it to be them,” McGuire said on Triple M, “I’ve got a big appetite to chase this one.” This is, of course, very serious but we did laugh when he said “big”.

Dragon Lady talks

The dragon at the centre of the Melbourne lord mayor ­by-election and the lady behind the dragon have something to say. Strewth reported yesterday on the Chinatown Election Forum where lord mayoral candidates were asked to commit funding to a new Chinese New Year beast. Chinatown Precinct Association member Eng Lim,who pushed for a new dragon at the forum, told Strewth that while the current dragon was getting old, it still was in pretty darn good shape (not yet Game of Thrones ice zombie dragon status).

World’s biggest dragon. Picture: David Crosling

Lim is willing to wait three to five years for a replacement so she won’t be feeding the next
lord mayor to a fire-breather straight away. And she wanted this correction: “The current dragon is not just the biggest in Australia. It’s the largest
in the world!” Apologies, Great Dragon.

Literary demise

A pair of famous writers marked their death anniversaries yesterday. Flights of angels sung William Shakespeare to his rest 402 years ago. Mary Poppins creator PL Travers went to that big Cherry Tree Lane in the sky on April 23, 1996. Shakespeare may be the Bard, but the Julie Andrews film of Mary Poppins is the greatest thing ever made by humans. We reckon Travers wins.

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