Kevin Rudd seems to be using Twitter as a means of connecting with “da youf”. But with Twitter, you can see where the tweets are sent from. When Kevin Rudd tweeted that he was off buying a cake for Swanny — it was interesting to see that the message wasn’t sent from a mobile phone, but a computer.
So I had a look at all his other tweets — and guess what — they’re all sent from a computer. Which seems to suggest that Kevin hasn’t a clue about Twitter, and that his tweets are sculpted by his office to make him look hip …
In comparison, Malcolm Turnbull’s tweets are usually sent from his mobile phone — which seems far more authentic…
Turnbull faster than light: According to Twitter, Malcolm Turnbull at 10.19am today was “in Tasmania with Julie Bishop, Eric Abetz and the Debt Truck”. According to a Melbourne observer an hour later, he was in Malvern Road, Malvern, walking smartly into the heavily postered and traditionally Turnbull hostile office of the member for Higgins, Peter Costello. Just passing … thought he’d drop in?
Jacqueline King as pulled out of the race for Qld Labor State Assistant Secretary — vacated by vastly popular Terry Wood — due to lack of numbers. Former Bligh adviser Jacqui Trad — an early tip to replace Wood — is now in the frame.
Overheard during a Lawrence Springborg-Tim Nicholls meal in New Farm in Brisbane last week: “It was better under Beattie — he knew how to play the game.”
The factional hacks are feeling a tad worse for wear after a bruising preselection battle for the Federal seat of Tangney. The three way fight forced some major players within the party to pick sides with some major power brokers butting heads over the outcome. In one corner we had Lyons: Heavily backed by the Womens Division, and Bishop loyalists in Curtin Division. Lyons was being touted as a genuine “third choice” for an independant candidate. Lyons was never a serious contender, with Lyons having all but “given up the ghost” in the last week leading up to the presel.
Then we had Jensen: Backed in by party loyalists from within the Division, but damaged by the fact that some of his branch delegates were excluded from the vote.
In the other corner we had Piggot: The “Northern Alliance” candidate who was in reality running as a proxy for Cameron Scheuster (Tangney Division President), and Matt Brown. Piggott was heavily backed by Senator Cormann who leant heavily on random delegates to ensure that they were not swayed to vote for Jensen.
The final decision will now go to State Council where the fighting will be much more intense. Matt Brown failed to clear the State Council hurdle last time, but with the big swining dicks “on the scene” this time around will we see a different outcome?
While watching and listening to the BBC’s British Open telecast on Saturday afternoon, Australian Adam Scott made a short putt for a 36 hole total of 5 over, 1 shot short the cut. It was then pointed out by an English commentator that he was going out with tennis star Anna Ivanovic to which the Australian commentator responded “I reckon she’s gonna cop a serve tonight” Oh dear.
Just for the record, what will also happen is that everyone will quickly learn to be much more careful about what is recorded in writing in future. Even in my day most of the real advice to ministers was done on post-it notes, if for no other reasons to stay out of the reach of potential discovery actions in future legal proceedings. Nowadays there’s a whole host of other technological options. Is a text message FOIable? Openness and transparency is a noble objective, when all is said and done, but what impact this will have on frank and fearless advice and good governance is an interesting question.
The Seven Network’s on air promotions department is said to be a hot bed of swine flu: seven confirmed cases and its all under wraps. Also, the newsroom has had the odd case with leading newsreader, Sam Armytage had a dose of flu after returning from the US recently (not known if it’s swine).
FreeView Australia, the Free To Air TV industry’s promotions group set up to publicise the Free To Air industry’s 10 new digital channels, has gone into its shell, a victim of the budget cutting gripping all sections of the sector. FreeView will not only be “reactive” not proactive. So if there’s a complaint or media inquiry, that will get answered, but no more actively selling the FreeView message. The on air TV ads on all five networks will continue, but that’s contra. Foxtel is happy at the news, but its subscriptions are under growing pressure and the 12 month one month free, free installation offer is being pushed even harder at the moment.
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