From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Clive’s chaos. Clive Palmer has got in a spot of trouble for allegedly breaking various electoral rules ahead of Saturday’s Tassie election. One matter Tips queried on Tuesday was why Palmer had a Commonwealth coat of arms on what appeared to be his personal plane (check out the pic here) — is that allowed? The Australian kindly followed it up for us a day later with this story:

“Mr Palmer flew into Hobart yesterday on one of his private planes which bore the Australian coat of arms on its fuselage. A spokesman for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which protects the use of the coat of arms, said ‘senators and federal members of parliament may use the arms in the course of their duties as parliamentarians’.”

So it seems like Clive may be off the hook — although does campaigning in another jurisdiction’s election count as parliamentary duties? A plane-spotting commenter dug around a little deeper and told us: “it looks like Bombardier Global Express, Clive has Global and it also has a blue stripe at the top. A better question for Clive is, ‘mate, why is your plane registered in the Isle of Man?'” The commenter pointed us to this pic of Clive’s plane, and yes, there are various claims online that Clive’s jet is registered in the Isle of Man. There’s even a blog thread devoted to snapping pics of Clive’s private plane. People do have some odd hobbies.

How to stop telemarketers. We heard an interesting tale from a reader who received a call from a Queensland number. The cold caller said “you need to give me you [phone] number so I can put it in our system.” The caller then identified himself as being from Cash Converters and said: “If you don’t give me your number I cannot stop you getting further calls.” Our reader tried to get the caller to go away and didn’t want to give any personal information.

In response, did you know you now have the legal right, if a telemarketer calls you, to request that they tell you where they got your personal details from? And the organisation that has called you has to oblige in a reasonable period of time, unless it is “impracticable or unreasonable to do so”. As of this week we have new Australian Privacy Principles, and the one relating to telemarketers is No. 7. We’d love to hear from any readers who try this strategy out when a telemarketer next calls. Email us here.

You also have the legal right not to receive direct marketing, and to direct any organisation not to use or disclose your information for the purpose of marketing.

Coming the raw Prahran. Forget South Australia and Tasmania. Victorians head to the polls in November, and we’re hearing rumbles about Labor’s preselection for the Melbourne seat of Prahran. Some reckon the candidate who won the local vote was overruled by the party chiefs. Some local member aren’t too happy about it … those mischievous tweeters @SpringStsource have their own take on the situation.

Keep calm and ignore MH370. A caller to 3AW this morning reported a friend had flown from Melbourne to Sydney yesterday and the inflight news did not report on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Ms Tips is a nervous flyer, so she understands the rationale, but does it amount to censorship of the news? Has anyone else who’s flown this week noticed if the missing plane did or didn’t make the inflight news? Drop us an email. Of course, if you flew Tiger you’re lucky to get a seat, let alone inflight infotainment …

God enters Tassie election campaign? Tasmania’s Labor Premier (for now, anyway) Lara Giddings seems to be getting some support from up above as she campaigns for Saturday’s election. She certainly needs some divine intervention; polls show the Liberals are poised to win. This pic was instagrammed today by Giddings’ chief media person.

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