From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Spotted. Qantas spinner and partner of AWU head Paul Howes, Olivia Wirth, met up with her old boss Coalition MP Joe Hockey on Tuesday for a couple of wines at an upmarket Sydney hotel bar. Perhaps they were discussing Cameron Stewart’s recent Weekend Australian Magazine profile on Wirth, titled “The Smiling Assassin”, where Hockey called his former advisor “titanium tough”?

No seriously minister, turn your phone off. Is there anything funnier in Australian politics than our highest legal government adviser getting told off for breaking the rules? Attorney General Mark Dreyfus got a stern talking to from both Qantas and the Australian Federal Police after the QC apparently refused to turn his mobile phone off during a flight from Sydney to Brisbane after several requests. Dreyfus denies that he was asked to turn it off several times. That could be the end of it, but Crikey’s aviation writer Ben Sandilands says it’s an outrage that ministers think they can break aviation law. As he wrote on his blog Plane Talking this morning:

“It is grossly unfair for the first law officer in Australia, the Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, to be allowed to apologise his way out of an alleged refusal to turn off his mobile smart phone on a Qantas flight. Ordinary people would have to defend their actions in court. Ordinary people whether innocent or guilty, are not allowed to apologise for alleged offences against aviation law any more than they can apologise their way out of prosecution after being pulled over for speeding through school zones or other alleged offences.

And the law of the Commonwealth doesn’t actually differentiate between ordinary people and cabinet Ministers. It is based on the principle that we are all equal before the law. Mr Dreyfus has to uphold the law, even if it could be argued to be bad, silly or inappropriate law. Not apologise his way out of his fundamental obligations, which is an option not available to the people of lesser importance than the first law officer.”

Any lawyers want to offer their legal opinion on this? (Perhaps Dreyfus himself?) Get in touch via our anonymous form or send us an email.

One day to nominate. ALP members in Victoria have been given just one day to nominate for the vacant position in the upper house region of Western Metropolitan triggered by Martin Pakula’s byelection win in Lyndhurst. In a lunchtime email to members yesterday (see below), Victorian Labor informed the rank and file they had 28 hours and 39 minutes to make up their mind about whether they’d make a good MP, with nominations set to close in under 4 hours at 5pm today.

A planned grass-roots preselection, that would have involved the 3000 members in the area, has been junked and replaced by a Monday night decision of Labor’s National Executive, an expedited process forced on the party thanks to Liberal upper house president Bruce Atkinson’s interminable delay in writing to Labor to set down a timetable. As Crikey has previously reported, the number one slot on Labor’s group voting ticket belongs to the AWU, with current state secretary Cesar Melhem an unbackable favourite to be given the green light on Monday. Veteran AWU vice president Ben Davis will then likely assume Melhem’s position when the union holds internal elections in a few months’ time.

A misfit named Murdoch. Tune in to SBS this Sunday night for a documentary on everyone’s favourite media mogul Rupert Murdoch, titled Murdoch. Here’s how SBS describes the two-part series:

However, over at the Murdoch-owned Foxtel, the guide describes a rather different program. “Maybe someone at Foxtel is having fun at the boss’s expense,” speculates our eagle-eyed tipster:

Frankly, Tips thinks the Foxtel version sound a lot more interesting to watch.

Print really is dead. A hot tip from the 3AW rumour file this morning, that a major media organisation has put a stop on any further expenditure on pens. Any idea which organisation has even the pen-pushers banning pens? Drop us a line …

*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form