The family way

POLITICS seems to be becoming a family business in Queensland, where an election looms.

POLITICS seems to be becoming a family business in Queensland, where an election looms.

The ALP has endorsed as its candidate for the seat of Indooroopilly Sarah Warner, the daughter of Anne Warner, a former minister in the Wayne Goss government. But more than that, WarnerSr is a good friend and political mentor of Premier Anna Bligh, who succeeded her as state member for South Brisbane. If Warner Jr gets the voters' approval, she wouldn't be the only daughter of a pollie in Bligh's caucus: both Vicky Darling and Annastacia Palaszczuk had parents in the pork barreling trade as well. Young Warner faces a tough battle in Indooroopilly as the seat is held by Ronan Lee, who was elected as an ALP member but defected to the Greens, while the conservative candidate is Scott Emerson, a former political reporter on The Australian. Both Lee and Emerson reportedly have parents, just not in politics.

Flight from fame

LIFE after cricket has its drawbacks. Adam Gilchrist not only has to carry his own bag when he flies these days but there's no security to protect him from the great unwashed. After a day of smiling, handshaking and backslapping for his sponsors, Gilchrist told Cricket Australia guests, including Michael Parkinson, who were attending the Australia v New Zealand one-day match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, that he had been hoping for some quiet time at the airport on his way home. Instead he was set upon by a persistent fan who cornered him in the newsagent. "Aren't you Glenn McGrath?" the fan asked. "No," said Gilchrist, as the disappointed fan turned and walked away.

Fruits of the vine

JAMES Gilbert Hardy, sailor and former winemaker, has spent the past six months working on a new book, which he has modestly titled My Wines, by Jim Hardy. Hardy divides his time between Adelaide and Sydney and is no longer directly linked to the company that bears his family's name, Hardy's Wines. It is now owned by American giant Constellation Wines for which Gentleman Jim is an occasional consultant. The 45,000-word book, which Hardy says is a "simple guide to the many pleasures of Australian wines", is accompanied by photographs taken by Adelaide's Milton Wordley and is edited by Robert Mayne, a former assistant editor of The Australian and a one-time colleague of Hardy's. "The book is not a paean to Hardy's Wines but a tribute to winemakers large and small from around Australia, who made this great industry what it is today," Hardy says. "It's aimed at sharing the great pleasure the wine industry has given me over seven decades." The book's cover portrait, taken by Antony Armstrong-Jones, shows Hardy sniffing a glass of red wine because, he says, "the first duty of every wine is to be red".

Under the barricades

IF the prime minister of Britain, the French president or the German chancellor were about to lob into Oz, you would expect ASIO, the federal coppers and every politician in the land to be in a lather of excitement. But Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Margot Wallstrom, the EC vice-president, were supposed to be in Sydney on Friday. Not a word has appeared in the press and the streets are mercifully free of George Bush's traffic and pedestrian-strangling barricades. Unfortunately, Barroso, who yesterday was meeting the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, last week pulled the plug on his visit. But he says he hopes to be here after the coming European summer.

Last orders

IT was a day of reflection yesterday for those who spent much of the 1960s and '70s partying hard in Sydney nightclubs and late-night bars. At 10.30am mourners gathered at St Mary's Anglican Church in Waverley for the funeral of Chequers nightclub owner Denis Wong. With his brother Keith, Wong not only brought a who's who of overseas stars to Australia to perform at Chequers but also set up the nearby Mandarin Club, one of the first places in the city where one could legally get a drink after midnight. At 4pm friends and family gathered in the Scots College chapel at Bellevue Hill to farewell Syd "the Captain" Taylor, a recent resident of Majorca, who frequented almost every bar or nightspot, exclusive or shady, that flourished in those years. Any night of the week, the Captain could be found cheerfully holding court at now-vanished Sydney establishments such as Martin's Bar, Arthurs, Pete's Bar, Number 26, Chez Guy, Caprice, the Bondi Lifesaver, the 33 Club and Whisky au Go Go.

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