The Media Monitors' Top 20

The Media Monitors’ Top 20

So, is Nick Xenophon now the second most important politician in Australia? The media seemed to think so this week, writes Patrick Baume>

So, is Nick Xenophon now the second most important politician in Australia? The media seemed to think so this week, and they may not be far wrong after some wins on water from the new Senator, although his relative dominance comes at a record all time low for media coverage of politics. Well, a record since we started doing the Top 20 anyway.

Steve Fielding managed to get a bit of juice out of Fuel Watch and the Murray, but he must surely be a little envious of the amount of coverage his fellow power-balancer is getting, while the Acting PM and recently Acting Opposition Leader were 19th and 22nd respectively on the list. Now there’s something to rage about Germaine.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	*15,109*	1,000
2	24	Independent	Nick Xenophon	181	390	404	88	*3,556*	266
3	0	Opp Leader	Brendan Nelson	198	242	131	404	*4,550*	244
4	-2	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	382	103	62	301	*3,108*	212
5	1	Premier	Alan Carpenter	330	219	90	178	*2,759*	204
6	-2	Premier	Morris Iemma	279	291	26	178	*2,895*	194
7	-2	Backbench	Peter Costello	227	148	26	270	*2,890*	168
8	0	Premier	Anna Bligh	288	88	41	154	*1,843*	143
9	2	Cabinet	Stephen Smith	68	207	18	199	*2,498*	123
10	19	Minor Party	Steve Fielding	124	146	87	56	*1,379*	103
11	-1	Shadow	Malcolm Turnbull	87	32	39	226	*1,973*	96
12	-5	Cabinet	Penny Wong	123	119	3	127	*1,575*	93
13	4	Premier	John Brumby	182	57	35	84	*1,094*	90
14	-1	WA Opp Ld	Colin Barnett	23	119	63	143	*1,766*	87
15	4	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	175	52	22	73	*951*	80
16	-2	Outer Min	Chris Bowen	56	62	90	92	*1,225*	75
17	10	Premier	David Bartlett	148	60	24	58	*864*	72
18	4	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	29	87	12	155	*1,589*	71
19	-10	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	80	41	25	112	*1,129*	64
20	5	Premier	Mike Rann	82	59	58	46	*807*	61

Is consistently being largely ignored by that most opinionated of groups, talkback callers, the worst poll of all for Brendan?

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	255
2	Morris Iemma	186
3	Alan Carpenter	161
4	Nick Xenophon	67
5	Brendan Nelson	58

Just to prove we’re not totally jingoistic, the greatest manfish of all aeons got more press and telly coverage than the PM on his way to 8 gold medals. Thorpey must now know how Kieren Perkins feels.