Don’t tell me Australian TV isn’t in some trouble. The director of Deb Cox’s (Seachange) new series, East Of Eden, is referring to the show as “East of Interesting”. Ouch. Not even the creatives like our content.

The story about Walt Secord being moved on looks credible. For it to be suggested that Simon Balderstone might be a new and additional resource for Peter Garrett, however, ignores the fact that Balderstone stuck to Garrett like sh-t to a wool blanket since Garrett joined the ALP in 2004. I guess he deserves a gig.

How will Coles explain away to tabloid current affairs shows the parental reaction to a kid showing up to school brandishing a packet of Jim Beam bourbon flavoured potato chips, which are only available in their Liquorland and 1st Choice stores? Dad pulls up at the drive thru, kid nags dad for the chips (seems fairly harmless), kid proudly displays token of aspiration to his peers. Most liquor companies are well aware of their responsibilities when it comes to advertising / promoting their products within coo-ee of kids. Minors can’t buy the bourbon, but they can buy the chips. A bold branding exercise by Jim Beam with Coles the hapless retailer, or is it really a calculated push to get anyone, including minors, to aspire to the drunken dream?

It seems that Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion might be more of a party boy than he’s letting on. While his drunken dacking in downtown Moscow may have been ten years ago and well before he was ensconced as a Senator, his attendance at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Dance Party in 2004 was a much more recent occurence. A couple of likeable local Darwin lads were quite surprised to see their Senator enjoying the delights of the semi-naked throng in the Horden Pavillion at 3am, DOOF, DOOF, DOOF, in the company it seems of a few of Nigel’s Sydney male friends. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that). The lads had a quick hello and chat with a nonplussed Nigel, who seemed ecstatic to see them. So, while the blustering Boswell was fulminating about the sin and vulgarity of Mardi Gras in senate adjournment speeches, the soon-to-be Deputy Leader of the party was on a fact finding tour at the party. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!). It’s not known if Nigel’s undies were clean on this night of nights, or indeed whether they were Armani or Calvin Klein?

Pulp Mill fallout. It is alleged that house prices in the vicinity (line of sight?) of the proposed pulp mill have halved in value since the announcement that it would go ahead. It is also alleged that a state minister sold his property in this area just prior to the announcement.

I have been interested to read about the comments regarding backpackers assisting the Liberal party. There has been no scrutiny of the Your Rights at Work Volunteers. At the booth I attended, the Your Rights at Work volunteers openly changed into Kevin 07 t-shirts when Labor supporters needed a break or they were short on numbers. The Your Rights at Work campaigners were paid by their unions to be there, and I am aware that at one Qld union, union officials were supplementing their income in the weeks leading up to the election by working Sunday “overtime” and earning up to $300 each for one day’s work.

History repeats. Re AFL Teams on the Gold Coast – when the first AFL/VFL team was mooted for Queensland in the late 1980s a detailed feasibility study was commissioned from Arthur Anderson. The study emphatically endorsed locating the team in Brisbane – NOT the Gold Coast. But when Christopher Skase with his various Gold Coast interests obtained control of the Bears – where did they end up?

The investigation, and suspension, of Thomas Kossman as Head of The Alfred hospital’s trauma unit may involve professional jealousy, xenophobia and greed. Kossman is an outsider, not part of the medical establishment, not even a product of an Australian university. By training, he is an othopod, and is straying into the territory of the spinal surgeons – and they don’t like it. Further, as head of trauma, Kossman had first dibs on Transport Accident Commission patients, cutting off some of this lucrative income stream from the locals. The issue is further clouded by Kossman, who has hired a PR firm to mount his defence. This is an unusual gambit in a fight that is notionally about allegations surrounding his clinical practices.

NAB is offshoring some of its mission critical applications in a hurry to India exposing the shareholders and the Australian economy to unmeasured risk and unqualified cost savings, steaming into unchartered waters without life jackets.