Strewth: where’s Dasher?

Wayne Swan had a big launch for his Labor Party presidency bid but one man was noticeably missing from the party.

Swanny strikes a presidential pose with his supporters.

Wayne Swan had a plethora of Labor legends at the launch of his bid for the ALP presidency in Sydney but one man was nowhere to be seen. Strewth can confirm Sam Dastyari was not at the Swan event on Tuesday night. That’s despite this august organ’s Brad Norington reporting Dasher has been helping Swanny with his campaign to become the party’s figurehead. Luckily, the former treasurer had Kristina Keneally on hand. The NSW ex-premier and Dastyari’s Senate successor spoke to a full house at Sydney Trades Hall. She called Swanny a “bloody legend” and waxed lyrical about Ben Chifley’s Light on the Hill (it was a Labor Party party after all). Also in attendance at the Swan shindig were Labor’s manager of opposition business Tony Burke, the party’s NSW secretary Kaila Murnain and Transport Workers Union boss Tony Sheldon.

Bland Butler

Mark Butler, meanwhile, launched his ALP presidency campaign in Melbourne amid less glamour. The opposition environment spokesman had Labor MPs Julian Hill and Andrew Giles (yawn), Victorian government ministers Lily D’Ambrosio, Martin Foley and Gavin Jennings (boring), and former deputy prime minister Brian Howe (yeah, OK, he’s a grandee, a bit better). Melbourne’s biggest Labor star, Bill Shorten,definitely wasn’t there to back his frontbench colleague — the Opposition Leader was in Perth, and he reportedly doesn’t want Butler to win a second term as ALP president. Butler’s Sydney event last week was a bit more exciting, with beloved lefties Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong.

Where’s his Voice?

Malcolm Turnbull has faced many difficult questions. Can he bounce back? Will he ever be rid of Tony Abbott? But there was only one question on everyone’s lips yesterday: does the Prime Minister of Australia really not know the words to You’re the Voice? While Australia’s Commonwealth Games swimming team swayed to John Farnham’s hit at Tuesday night’s finals, Turnbull simply smiled and stayed shtum. There was one moment when he seemed to speak, not sing, a couple of lines, but that was it. Don’t worry, dear reader, the dear leader does know the words to Australia’s alternative national anthem. “Well, I do, but I can tell you that there are very good reasons for me not to be singing and they don’t involve not knowing the words,” Turnbull told Ash, Kip and Luttsy on Nova 1069 Brisbane yesterday. “Beautiful, talented, young people (the swimming team), the worst thing I could do is inflict my singing on them.”

Trio in the tower

Turnbull went from sunny Queensland to very sunny Melbourne yesterday. The Prime Minister, Treasurer Scott Morrison, and Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer were seen walking in and out of HWT Tower in Southbank, home of Melbourne’s mightiest tabloid, the Herald Sun, and this even mightier newspaper’s base in Victoria. The trio didn’t come up to The Australia n’s Melbourne bureau and say hi to Strewth. We’re quite hurt, to be honest.

Springer in his step

Joe Hockey spent Tuesday night with a notorious American TV host. No, no, not that one. While in New York, the Australian ambassador to the US bumped into the king of confessional chat shows himself, Jerry Springer. “Caught up with this legend in New York. Jerry Springer is smart, wise and worldly,” Hockey declared on Instagram. US President Donald Trump won’t be pleased to hear who the Oz’s man in Washington has been with. Last July, Springer tweeted: “I’m sorry, but Trump’s behaviour is not just beneath the dignity of the Presidency … but that of any decent man.”

Height of absurdity

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg sat on a booster seat while testifying in front of the US Senate yesterday. Yes, a booster seat. He should resign just for that.

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