Rank the pollies. Seeing as you all had so much to say about Wayne Swan taking out the No. 1 spot in the Canberra list, we thought we’d give you the readers the opportunity to go and rank your very own politicians power list. Simply head over to our survey page and choose 10 names in order. We’ll reveal the results next week.

Greg Medcraft’s face of fear. Move over Tony Negus and Robert French — there are some movements on the Law Enforcers power list. ASIC head Greg Medcraft, who we listed as No. 4 on the Law Enforcers list, will need to shift up a notch or two.

The securities guru had a major win in the High Court yesterday, by way of the unanimous decision that James Hardie directors breached their duties when they issued a press release saying Hardie’s compensation fund for asbestos victims was fully funded.

Medcraft takes the limelight, but he can’t take all the credit — some of that needs to be reserved for his predecessor Tony D’Aloisio, who oversaw the early stages of the matter, and whose time at the corporate watchdog was dogged by high-profile losses and accusations it didn’t have the capacity to take on the big end of town.

Yesterday’s decision saw the court overturn a December 2010 NSW Court of Appeal ruling that found ASIC had failed in its duty to act “fairly”. It also positions ASIC, and its man at the top, as a regulator that should be feared by directors.

Where are the power types making poverty history? We’re pretty impressed by the latest campaign from Make Poverty History, an open letter to the prime minister urging the government not to axe aid spending in the upcoming federal budget. The list of signatories to the letter, published in The Australian today, reads like a who’s who of Australia’s most prominent individuals.

But we couldn’t help but notice that very few individuals featured on The Power Index — politicians, media heavies, culture types and big business gurus among them — have put their name to the campaign.

While No. 1 on the Melbourne list, Harold Mitchell, has signed the open letter, as well as Yahoo!7’s Rohan Lund from the Digital Media list and the ACTU’s Ged Kearney, who’ll feature in our Union Heavies list next week, the line-up of signatories is otherwise looking pretty slim when it comes to the country’s most influential people. Where’s the love?

A spokesperson from Make Poverty History said those who signed the letter have an interest in the international aid sector and development, with some assisting the campaign financially.