The rumour out Bennelong way is that the Exclusive Brethren have given their members special permission to vote at this election. Might at the very least help John Howard’s salvation locally.

In contrast to the experiences of other ex-pats regarding absentee voting, the High Commission in Wellington New Zealand were well prepared and I voted this morning in a process which took 10 minutes (including passing through security).

I hear today that BHP-Billiton has approved the building of a second rail line from Port Hedland to Newman, giving it one line up and one line back, costing between two to three billion dollars. With the extra tonnage they can’t get enough trains up and down the same track plus carry out maintenance.

I’m wondering if anyone can shed light on the completely naked man who was wondering around the Tullamarine international airport check-in area at approximately 4pm yesterday 18 November. He was of vaguely middle eastern appearance, with a neatly trimmed beard, and no clothes or footwear of any kind. I first saw him striding out from the shopping circle near customs, he did a lap of the international check-in counters and headed back the way he came. Aside from some wry comments from startled onlookers (“well at least you can see he isn’t carrying a bomb”) there seemed to be no official reaction, and he proceeded on his way unimpeded… I guess this was the less secure area outside the security gates, but it was still one of the more curious things I’ve seen this year…

Campbell Newman, the soon to be most senior elected Liberal in the nation believes that nothing is safe from politics. This is what he had to say about Rememberance day and RSL’s at the 13 November 2007 Brisbane council meeting: “Mr Chairman, I rise to speak about … the Australian Defence Force‘s view of – Councillors interjecting – …. also the whole issue about Remembrance Day and the Australian Defence force’s view of the Australian Labor Party and their tireless support to their efforts over the past 30 or 40 years.” … “On Remembrance Day, I just wanted to say, as a current member of the Australian Army Reserve, still, I just find it nauseating in the extreme to go to various events like Remembrance Day and Anzac Day and see Labor politicians, particularly mixing freely with veterans. My own father was a Malayan emergency and Vietnam Veteran, and I know who he objected to when he returned from the Vietnam conflict. I know which political party organised the moratorium marches, were responsible for throwing paint on battalion soldiers marching through the streets of our capital cities, who threw eggs at them, called them “baby killers” – it was the Australian Labor Party and their socialist alliance type fellow preachers…” Don’t know what makes a Major in the reserves think he is a spokesperson for the whole of the Australian defense forces.

Doubled parked. It seems that Macquarie is not the only seat in which the Liberals park illegally. This bus was double parked outside the Liberal campaign office in Lindsay for around an hour on Saturday: