It was the usual scene on a Saturday (22 September) in the electorate of Bennelong. John Howard was out and about in Eastwood, however for the very first time, he was accompanied by a group of young Asians handing out pamphlets. Rumours were soon abound that they were actually international students who were being paid $15 per hour.

National Jet operate throughout the country providing aviation support to others such as the Customs and Qantas. There is an ongoing shortage of trained maintenance engineers (known as LAMEs, licenced aircraft maintenance engineers)and NJ are short. They’re short because the AWAs they are offering are very poor in pay and conditions. What do they do? (at least in Perth), they offer sponsorship to (at least four ) British LAMEs to get into the country who will accept the pay and conditions. Their excuse to the Government is that they cannot recruit enough engineers. Qantas is doing the same.

Miranda Devine’s Sunday column in the Sun Herald, on Bryce Corbett’s new book, mentions that his wife is Shay Stafford. Would that be the same Shay Stafford that Corbett wrote a profile on for the Weekend Australian magazine in August 2005? How ethical is it to write a profile about your partner?

Watch upcoming editions of the Government Gazette for potentially interesting proclamations. As ministers clear out their desk, often documents are magically rediscovered. This happened in NSW earlier this year, when the number of national parks (both in count and size) grew dramatically – most had been approved many months prior, but the paperwork had been sat on…

I am a big punter and I have tried to have several bets of the order of $500 to $1,500 on a range of seats at odds ranging from $3.50 to around $1.80. The betting agencies have not taken them and even after long conversations with the betting agencies and discussion with the chief bookmakers. When the bets have been agreed, the odds have been adjusted just to get a bet of that size on. So stories of punter having $12,000 on Howard to win Bennelong are crap. I challenge any punter looking to have a winning stake above about $1,000 (thats $500 at 2 to 1 or $1,000 at evens).