The new Julia

IT may be getting complicated/shambolic/WTF (delete where applicable) with East Timor, but it's panning out a little differently with another of our northern neighbours.

IT may be getting complicated/shambolic/WTF (delete where applicable) with East Timor, but it's panning out a little differently with another of our northern neighbours.

Baby Julia Gillard weighed in last week at 4.3kg, at Kainantu hospital in Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands. Her parents Sinkau and Doreen Fuguto named her only minutes after her namesake was sworn in as PM. Julia's dad said he was grateful for how Australia had helped him in his education and career as an agricultural officer. And Julia's sister is now studying in Australia. A feast will be held this month for Julia's formal naming, in her home village of Basanegka. Maybe they'll invite Kevin Rudd, who's aged two and lives in another Eastern Highlands village. Then again, maybe not. No one wants a good feast to lose its way.

Famous last words

IT'S always exciting to get an insight into the thinking of a political figure freed from the corset of their party machine. Or, in the case of Ross Musgrove, before they slip into the corset. As mentioned in Strewth last week, the former Beattie government adviser left his most recent gig with the Queensland Police Union to become chief of staff to state Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek. So before he's consumed by the Liberal National Party (we state this more as a possibility rather than an inevitability), let's turn to Musgrove's column in last month's issue of the Queensland Police Union Journal. It starts promisingly: "What I'm about to state may not be all that popular with some members. Our pollies need more pay." Goal! What about, say, Tony Abbott? "Abbott is all over the shop - the longer he talks, the more likely he is to say something stupid. I now understand why they thought it was a good idea for him to go on a bike ride for a week and a half." Blimey. Still, Musgrove is inside the tent now. And he's harder on others, not least former LNP members turned independents Rob Messenger ("a good grip of reality may not have been his strong point") and Aidan McLindon ("the bovver boy from Beaudesert"). And the other lot? "The problem is that there are a number on the Labor side who are just as, well . . . individual." Attaboy! Incidentally, his column was called Behind the Spin.

Publicly anonymous

APART from its sheer enjoyability, another positive aspect of Musgrove's column was that he put his name on it. Not so those Liberals toiling to bring down backbencher Alex Hawke. Here's a sample from their latest missive, tentatively titled MP ALEX HAWKE MUST RESIGN: "A growing number of anonymous members are today going public through this media release in efforts to highlight the issue of Alex Hawke's past irregularities . . ." By "going public", Strewth assumes they meant they would be giving their names. But unless jingy434150 is a real name, we sit corrected.

Abbott gets fruity

THE sight of Abbott getting busy with the fruit at Brisbane's Rocklea market yesterday brought back memories of that time Malcolm Turnbull, Earl of Wentworth, astounded us all with his banana-stacking. Not so wire service AAP, which got into something of a Freudian lather: "The Opposition Leader squeezed pineapples, humped boxes of tomatoes and tasted bananas in an action-man appearance at Brisbane's Rocklea fruit markets this morning." Perhaps it's just us forgetting that sometimes a cigar is indeed just a pineapple. Speaking of action figures, our special agent at Everton Football Club's press conference at Sydney's Sheraton on the Park yesterday was surprised by the presence of two generously built Australian security guards, decked out for good measure in the English club's colours. While our man didn't get very far with his most pressing question - "What the [colourful adjective] do they need security for?" - he did at least discover they have nicknames: Jean-Claude Van Damme II and the Fridge. Attempts to get the Fridge to reveal his true identity were however, unlike the Iron Monk's Rocklea adventure, fruitless.

Stand corrected

SINCE we likened our photo yesterday of Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James greeting Defence Minister John Faulkner to a meeting with a medieval pope, James has been in touch: "I was rising from my chair . . . to return John's handshake properly as he departed his media grilling and doing so somewhat ungracefully due to a recent back injury . . . caused by falling through a ceiling even more ungracefully. As a good Anglican, and as a public-interest lobbyist (for an area of governance where most are not interested), I would never genuflect to anyone."