Bob should be mischievous. Reading in today’s Financial Review how the BHP lobbyist Geoff Walsh, a former Bob Hawke adviser and ALP federal secretary, played such an intriguing role in the removal of Kevin Rudd should be enough to get Greens leader Bob Brown into a mischievous mood when it comes to making his election promises.

Why not hold out the prospect of not supporting the Julia Gillard cave-in of a compromise on taxing the major miners and holding out instead to sticking with the original proposal? Let any future Labor Government have to renege on its agreement with the miners or have no new mining tax revenue at all.

One thing for certain is that such an approach would put the Coalition leader Tony Abbott (or more likely his successor) in a difficult position. It could either break its promise to oppose Labor’s big new tax altogether or in fact be responsible for the miners paying more as a Labor Government, and the miners,  realised that because of the likely numbers in a new Senate Australia will continue to have a minority government.

Searching in vain. After yesterday’s National Press Club speech we have a better idea of what Julia Gillard does not want to do if she is in fact returned as Prime Minister. What voters are still looking for clues about is what she actually wants to do.

Footballing nonsense. It defies common sense to think that the managers of rugby league footballers who negotiated double contracts for their players were not aware that the second informal agreement was to avoid salary cap restrictions. There was no other possible purpose for the subterfuges entered into by the Melbourne Storm. If the National Rugby League is serious about enforcing its cap, it would forbid its clubs from dealing in any way with managers who engaged in this underhand practice.

Trust and BP. Trust nothing you hear and only half of what you see appears to be the motto of the New York Times when it comes to statements from British Petroleum.

16-07-2010 bpoilflowreport

The picture shows that the oil has stopped flowing but the cautious headline goes no further than “BP Says Oil Flow Has Stopped ….” Trust, once lost,  is clearly a difficult commodity to regain.

Real political football. What about us, they are crying in Hobart, as the Tasmanian Government sets out to renegotiate its $16.4 million deal for the Hawthorn AFL side to play four matches a year in the north of the state at Launceston’s Aurora Stadium. The capital city southerners want games at their own Bellerive Oval and the push is causing political problems. Relations between two Liberal party candidates for the forthcoming federal poll have become testy with candidate for the southern seat of Franklin Jane Howlett saying that playing games at Bellerive is a worthy idea while the candidate for the north-eastern seat of Bass Steve Titmus said those who want AFL games in Hobart should “pull their parochial heads in”.