The Media Monitors' Top 20

Sleepy times in Canberra mean plenty of state politicians getting media air time, writes Patrick Baume.

Just in case any further confirmation that the tumbleweeds completely take over the Big House on the Hill in January was needed, the media coverage figures from the last seven days — an absent Kevin Rudd top scoring with about a quarter the level of his usual coverage — should suffice.

Sleepy times in Canberra means plenty of state politicians on the Media Monitors’ Top 20 list, with health issues particularly prominent in Queensland and also NSW, along with good old Laura Norder getting a run — presumably she’s only back on top until everyone has to start trying to get to work again.

Of the few federal types getting coverage, Acting PM Julia Gillard is pretty much neck-and-neck with Kirribilli Kev, Joel Fitzgibbon is high on the list following the death of Private Greg Sher in Afghanistan last week, and Jenny Macklin featured in plenty of discussion of what’s in store for remote indigenous communities in 2009.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	400	784	1,000	*6,207*	796
2	0	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	485	1,000	1,000	459	*4,517*	736
3	3	NSW Premier	Nathan Rees	228	404	181	410	*2,752*	306
4	-1	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	378	409	148	260	*2,116*	299
5	10	Cabinet	Joel Fitzgibbon	188	466	310	136	*1,633*	275
6	7	Cabinet	Jenny Macklin	72	321	373	63	*1,050*	207
7	*	NSW Shadow	Jillian Skinner	86	251	126	213	*1,496*	169
8	-4	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	169	193	14	243	*1,521*	155
9	-2	Shadow	Julie Bishop	91	210	269	40	*715*	152
10	-2	Vic Premier	John Brumby	194	102	187	91	*785*	144
11	*	Qld Minister	Stephen Robertson	103	183	152	66	*733*	126
12	0	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	55	149	46	254	*1,468*	126
13	8	Backbench	Barnaby Joyce	86	322	48	18	*656*	119
14	-3	SA Premier	Mike Rann	110	150	138	54	*618*	113
15	-10	Qld Premier	Anna Bligh	211	23	15	165	*911*	104
16	*	NSW Minister	John Hatzistergos	86	193	2	89	*760*	93
17	0	Party leader	Bob Brown	105	100	29	127	*812*	90
18	5	Cabinet	Stephen Smith	32	86	27	210	*1,142*	89
19	-10	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	110	68	14	131	*775*	81
20	-4	Premier	Colin Barnett	133	86	27	53	*458*	75

The seasonal lack of interest in politics definitely extended to talkback in the last seven days — apart from the politics of the Australian cricket team of course.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Nathan Rees	75
2	Kevin Rudd	47
3	Peter Garrett	39
4	Julia Gillard	23
5	Barnaby Joyce	12

You possibly won’t be surprised that the retirement of the last of the golden patch of Australian cricketers born around 1970 saw two-and-a-half times as much coverage as any politician received, and five times as much on telly. Will we ever see dominance like that again, in any sport?