Unions rave about Oz

THIS newspaper must be the preferred journal of the labour movement, judging by the number of mentions we received at the opening sessions of the ACTU congress yesterday.

THIS newspaper must be the preferred journal of the labour movement, judging by the number of mentions we received at the opening sessions of the ACTU congress yesterday.

One of the few ad libs from ACTU president Sharan Burrow during a lengthy keynote address was a disparaging comment about the paper's position on industrial relations. The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union's Tony Maher then made mention of our "shonky" reporting before ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons let rip, labelling us the "house organ of our enemies". It was almost enough to make reporters from rival papers jealous. Funnily enough, during the congress debate many delegates were seen reading the Oz.

Rees gets it wrong again

JUST a couple of weeks after NSW Premier Nathan Rees repeatedly confused the populations of Sydney and NSW, he was at it again in question time, twice referring to Victorian counterpart John Brumby as "the senior premier of the federation". We know it feels like we've been enjoying Brumby's reassuring presence for centuries now, but just for the record we'd like to point out that South Australia's Mike Rann became Premier more than five years before Brumby.

No daytime dalliances

IT'S possible Rees was a little off his game thanks to all the brightly, tightly attired members of the Scarlet Alliance marking International Whores Day outside parliament's gates. Clad fetchingly in red latex and fiddling with a tube of lubricant, sex worker Ivy Mcintosh seemed resigned to the idea no pollies would be coming out to chat. "They're not interested in ending discrimination," she told Strewth. "But they are interested in paying for naughty services behind closed doors." (The mind suddenly boggles with images not easy to eradicate.) Asked whether there were any politicians with whom she wanted to hold talks, alliance president Elena Jeffreys said: "We won't discriminate. We'll meet with anyone." One of Macquarie Street's more regular protesters, who sat with his punchy "NSW Government Australia Corrupt Criminal Fraud Tyrant Evil Swindler" sign, merely looked annoyed at being overshadowed for the day.

Troy's ancestral burden

WEST Australian Treasurer Troy Buswell has revealed how he came to be the state's top tax collector and raker of money from pockets. "Research by Fremantle Prison archivists has found the record of one Joseph Buswell - convict No.3223 and my great-great-grandfather - who was transported for the crime of stealing three gold coins," Buswell confessed, after handing out certificates to more than 60 people with similarly shady pasts at the prison's Descendants Day ceremony in Perth this week.

Criminal bipartisanship

AFTER yesterday's item about federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, Victorian Liberal Richard Dalla-Riva and bipartisanship through the medium of football, we wondered if the spirit had spread. Let's check the Queensland Parliament, where Liberal National Party frontbencher Vaughan Johnson and Premier Anna Bligh exchanged views on former Nationals members who'd done time for rorting and defrocked Labor MPs Keith Wright and Bill D'Arcy, who'd been done for child sex offences.

Johnson: "There's better people in jail than you mob."

Bligh: "And they are all from the National Party."

Johnson: "All your pedophile mates."

So it's back to business as usual.

Fuddy-duddy web view

DURING a heavier than usual deluge of spam yesterday (mostly requests for our bank details), Strewth daydreamed about our computer system crashing for half a day. Of course it's not so much fun when it happens, as it did at the ABC earlier this week. One concerned (but not, we hasten to add, disgruntled) insider tells Strewth that a problem faced by Aunty's cyber division is members of management who regard the internet as a "passing fad": "The feeling in the newsroom is that this should be the kick up the arse that management need. The publishing system has been woefully inadequate for years, but upper management has never shown the concern they would have shown if a similar debacle had hit TV or radio. Fifteen seconds of dead air on prime-time TV would have been seen as a disaster, but more than 12 hours of terrible online news service was allowed to happen."