While lunching at the European, an upmarket eatery across the road from the Victorian Parliament, I found myself sitting at a table immediately behind a gaggle of state Labor pollies, including two Cabinet ministers, one of whom is retiring and the other thinks of himself as the next Premier. Most of the talk was about Altona.  The “meme” was “he was unelectable in ’99 and he still is … we’re gonna lose”.  The chat then wandered around if/how it was possible to “dump him before the election”. Why do I suspect that “he/him” is Premier Brumby and that there are no friends in politics?

Queensland sports minister gives away $1.8 million to A1 GP while in financial strife. Same thing happening with football team NQ Fury? $400K owing to Stadiums Queensland for this year’s games and any prospect of recovery?

I’m a University of Sydney student and I recently received my new student card by registered mail. It’s branded with ANZ and Visa logos and comes with a pre-paid credit card, which is apparently an optional extra.

It seems to me that USYD has just sold its entire database of students to ANZ and Visa so that their details can be held and their spending habits monitored — does this mean that students (likely to be susceptible to hard-sell offers of credit, especially if they are away from home for the first time) are going to be targeted for offers of ANZ and Visa’s other products?

I don’t recall any consultation with or notification of the student body, though to be fair, it is possible that I just wasn’t paying attention… There is an option to receive a new card without the branding and pre-paid Visa card, which requires that students fill in a form and wait to be contacted by the card centre. It is not stated how long this will take (and it should be noted that this card also has our travel and campus concessions linked to it and a delay would be inconvenient).

It seems that it may be optional to activate the Visa facility — but the uni’s own website appears to feature a link on how to activate the Visa facility without stating as to whether it is optional or not.

Trouble on Sydney’s deep North Shore. Just 12 months after taking ownership of the management of the mostly strata held Belrose Country Club, the AMP Capital Meridien Lifestyle group seems to have stirred up a hornet’s nest recently. Emails and letters have been sent to the Brisbane based office objecting to the cost cutting that has just begun.

Naturally it is the events, garden and maintenance (five acres) staff who are under the microscope as they only add to something intangible like quality of life to the village. This is exactly what attracted the residents to this once secret little paradise that filled up by word of mouth 25 years ago when it opened. Next week’s 25th celebration will be interesting.

Will the duplicate Southern Expressway become a TOLL road? I’ll bet the government is not saying before the state election. Ask the Premier and transport minister for a precise answer, then ask the Opposition for their comment on the governments answer. I’ll bet they are at loggerheads.

Re. The Foxtel free Olympics debate. While there has been much debate in the blogosphere about this (i.e. it’s not true), as yesterday’s Crikey tips and rumours contributor noted, it does indeed exist.  But you may not have received a letter.

If you qualify, just ring the service number, go through to bookings, and it will be switched over in a minute or so. And it glorious HD. One can only think this is Foxtel’s way of “pre-selling” its London Olympics coverage as a new product.