Re. LNP leadership ballot yesterday. The vote yesterday probably won’t reflect the true split that exists in the party now. Particularly true given a meeting held at Parliament House just before Christmas between a group of young up-and-coming former National party MPs and old National party stalwarts discussing a desire to dis-endorse some MPs. A number of MPs present at this meeting are now running for leadership positions against some of the MPs they discussed dis-endorsing. There may be a lah dee da face when everyone walks out of today’s meeting, but this party is still far from being cohesive.

No wonder “credible” journos are taking their jobs and shoving them as the laughs and guffaws continue to abound around a Sydney Sunday rag’s $100k per-year “page-filler” whose weekly one page column reads like a freebie-laden promotional fest. Another ageing Sunday tittle tattle columnist has not come up with a good yarn (and one that actually proves true) for yonks. How can this person continue to garner big bucks when the output is, minimal (and only weekly!) to say the least? Plans are afoot for a replacement, someone who lives in this millennium and actually makes a habit of being in touch with the younger peeps that anyone who bothers to read that junk wants to actually know about?

Archie the celebrity dolphin from Barwon River was harassed yesterday at 3.15pm. Archie the dolphin was harassed by a group of six people. They also had a large dog in the water with them and all were within inches of the dolphin which was beating it tail fin furiously. When a call was placed to the DSE as advised in the paper and on the warning signs at the beach, DSE had no idea about the dolphin or even where the Barwon River or Barwon Heads was.

When I asked to speak to someone who knew what was going on I got nowhere. Surfcoast employees were aware of what was going on but they have no power and there seems to be a reluctance to get the local police to take action against these fools. Pictures and video footage was taken.

Meanwhile on the grassy knoll: I noticed that Brian Naylor — bushfire victim and ex-newsreader — has a son in-law called Lapthorne. An accident? Or does this explain the never-ending media coverage of the ex-backpacker Lapthorne case?