Chance meeting. The Prime Minister hit the hustings in his seat of Bennelong on Saturday. Newspaper readers and television news viewers may have seen images of him at the Eastwood Mall, posing with a bloke recording their meeting on his mobile phone. And Crikey keeps on hearing rumours that this individual, far from being a civilian, has a long term non-political professional relationship with the PM. Surely it wasn’t all staged?

The return of core and non-core? “Donate to help re-elect Bob” says the Bob Brown website. “Donations to Bob Brown’s 2007 election campaign are a great way to help Australia enter a more exciting, optimistic post-Howard age. Our core aim? To win more Greens senate seats, taking away Howard’s control of the Senate…” Don’t say the Greens are now also playing the core and non-core game?

Space cadets. No doubt you’ve heard Peter Costello’s confession on Gold Coast radio yesterday “When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut”. But what did his boss want to do? Kruddy? Gillard? Suggestions, please, to christian@crikey.com.au.