Old leaders week. Yet another appearance for the week by an old political leader. Following on from John Howard, Paul Keating and Peter Costello comes Mark Latham with his Australian Financial Review column (not online, of course) making a mockery of his old Labor Party’s My School website. The former opposition leader described it as “another Rudd government skyrocket: plenty of colour and light at its launch but with no clear policy destination as it fizzled out and fell lamely back to earth.” In the Latham opinion if the federal government is not willing to overhaul the site, especially with the publication of value-adding results, it should be disbanded.

So a mention for Malcolm. As Malcolm Fraser has been quiet this week — he must have finished his book-launch tour — I think it appropriate he not be forgotten. So here is the portrait of the ex-PM by Robert Hannaford that has made the finalists for this year’s Archibald Prize:

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Where the jobs came from. The mining industry might still be just under half the size of agriculture when it comes to employment in Australia but it is certainly where the dramatic growth has come from. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning show that between February 2005 and this year employment in the mining industry grew by 58% to 174,500. Agricultural employment in the same period fell by more  than 7000, with jobs in manufacturing industry declining from 1,053,200 to 1,002,300.

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Belatedly calling a halt. Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett has finally called a halt to the smear-a-Green phone calls but I’m sure the damage has already been done. The automated phone calls with their recorded voice are sure to have annoyed many more people who will now  not vote Labor than they will have convinced to vote Labor rather than Green.