Leading by example. Nick Greiner turns special ed teacher this weekend, helping the state Liberal leaders with their learning difficulties. But shouldn’t the only Liberal government in the country also help? Shouldn’t they be leading by example about policy and personnel? Bill Heffernan sounded off about his state colleagues in the party room this week. The same Bill Heffernan who virtually single-handedly stopped the Snowy sale – populist posturing that set a problematic policy precedent? The same Bill Heffernan who’s a key powerbroker in the NSW division of the party – where internal elections have been suspended until 2008?

Hansard bloopers. If you were following the proceedings in the House of Representatives, you may have heard two nice slips where the Speaker was addressed as “Mr Question” and “Mr Squeaker”. Is this because his rulings are questionable – and not squeaky clean?

Personal preferences. A new paper from the Parliamentary Library looks at the history of preferential voting – and where the preferences went at the last election. Family First preferences went two thirds to the Coalition, while the ALP picked up more than 80% of Green preferences.