Trioli makes a point

FOR the record, Barnaby Joyce reckons ABC2's Virginia Trioli may have had a case yesterday when she pulled a face and used the universal twirly finger gesture to suggest he was crazy.

Virginia Trioli yesterday

FOR the record, Barnaby Joyce reckons ABC2's Virginia Trioli may have had a case yesterday when she pulled a face and used the universal twirly finger gesture to suggest he was crazy.

It happened on ABC News Breakfast moments after the end of an interview with Joyce, when Trioli made her contribution to that richest of television genres, Things TV Hosts Do When They Erroneously Believe the Camera's Been Turned Off. Joyce was still laughing about it hours later when Strewth caught up with him, admitting there was a possibility Trioli was "frustrated with my approach". But then, unafraid to face the harsher possibilities, Joyce delved deeper: "Maybe I am crazy. Maybe this isn't parliament but an asylum. And if I'm not Barnaby, who am I? And then, who is Barnaby? If I am crazy, it would explain a lot about this place." As for Trioli, she told Strewth, "Yes, it was off-air and an uncharacteristically frustrated moment from me, and the senator was very gracious in accepting my apology. Lesson learned." We're just relieved the wind didn't change.

A Hockey scrum

CONGRATULATIONS to Joe Hockey and Melissa Babbage, who have given their kids Xavier and Adelaide a brother in the form of Ignatius Babbage-Hockey, who arrived yesterday, just in time for lunch. Hockey still managed to muster the energy to hit Twitter: "Two very proud parents here!"

Guys and dolls

AFTER being amused by a story on website Mumbrella about a pornographic image mysteriously appearing on an ad for a Crows Nest flat on real estate website Domain, we felt we ought to de-smuttify with some wholesome news. Luckily, we belatedly got a press release about Belinda Allen succeeding Prue Carpenter as the new state commissioner for Girl Guides NSW and ACT. All good until we reached this paragraph: "Prue also presented Belinda's husband with a blonde Girl Guide doll and a packet of noodles to make do during his wife's many absences."

Steely salute

SO with no refuge among the Girl Guides, we were forced to retreat once more to federal parliament, where our colleague Samantha Maiden has, via her new blog Despatch Box (interested in product placement? Contact the address below), alerted us to the rise of the Liberal Party's Man of Steel Mk II. And it's none other than Malcolm Turnbull. There we were, thinking Mal is possibly the least John Howard-esque leader the Libs could have chosen, but we sit corrected after this, ahem, moment of heightened perception from Coalition MP Peter Lindsay after Sunday's marathon ETS meeting: "Malcolm, you've gone through a lot in the last week. You've put up with a lot. You've withstood it Malcolm. I think we've found another Man of Steel." We fear our breakfast has been dislodged.

Lost in the delivery

THE South Australian government media unit may have outsmarted itself when deciding how best to release a sensitive story about state MP Chloe Fox, who is five months pregnant and single. The daughter of children's author Mem Fox was appointed parliamentary secretary to Premier Mike Rann this year and is due to give birth just a fortnight before the next state election, in March. She faces a tough battle in a marginal, conservative seat. The brief for the media unit was simple: The story had to run in the Saturday edition of Adelaide daily The Advertiser and under no circumstances was it to go to a political journalist. However, while Health Minister John Hill's press sec Ruth Awbery settled on a female journo deemed to be most empathetic to Fox's plight, the story went out with the headline: "Meet the unattached state MP who's due to give birth days before the election."