Hunger strikers

I'll tell you what I'm over in 2009....I've had enough of hunger strikes. What a pathetic way to seek attention for a cause. I'm going to stop eating and lose lots of weight and I might get really sick. Honestly. Why not just go with I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue....or I'm going to go out and eat some worms.

Is that farmer still on his hunger strike near Cooma ? I'm sure he is.

What is he achieving ? Well, nothing. Other than looking like a bloody idiot and losing a lot of weight...he's not achieving anything.

And here he is, this Peter Spencer from Shannon's Flat...he's apparently starving himself to get a dialouge with the Federal Government. The Agriculture Minister has written to him, but he's refusing to open the letter. Whatever !!

And these climate change hunger strikers....did they really believe that they're crash diet was going to influence anyone in Copenhagen.

I'm over hunger strikers. Go and get a hamburger and find a practical and sensible way to make your point.

An eye for an eye

In the West, we often look down our noses at judicial decisions made in muslim countries. The general consensus is that they're stuck in the dark ages and we're a progressive society. They're primitive and we're forward thinking. Well, here's a case where I think they've got it right in the middle east.

In Lahore, in Pakistan, two brothers, Sher Mohammad and Amanat Ali have been found guilty of abducting their 22 year old cousin Fazeelat Bibi at gunpoint in September after Fazeelat's father refused to let her marry Mohammad.

These two gentlemen were not going to take that decision laying down. They put a noose around the poor girls neck and tried to strangle her. They failed at that attempt. So, they chopped off her nose and both her ears with a knife. You cannot imagine the immense pain and suffering at the time and the ongoing pain from such a crime. The girls mother was reportedly so distressed upon seeing the condition of her daughter that she died of a heart attack.

These two animals are despicable. A western court could not deal with them appropriately. In the west they would have been given a hefty prison term....full stop.

The Pakistani court sent them to life in prison....and ordered that they have their ears and noses cut off.

I don't have a drama with that.....do you ? I think if you cut another humans ears and nose off, you cease to be a fully fledged member of the human race and in this case, I think an eye for eye works for me.

I'm sure there will be an appeal....and I'm told that most such sentences are revoked on appeal. I hope this one stands. In the meantime, these two animals will be sweating it out.

South Coast Police are ready for you.

If you want to go away for Xmas and enjoy some rest and recreation over the festive season, do not work for the Batemans Bay Police Station. They don't let any of them take holidays over Xmas...and the biggest reason is us. Canberrans who converge on the South Coast over the holiday season to recharge the batteries.

If you're heading to the coast, for God's sake drive carefully. The trip to the bay can be perilous. Coming down that mountain in the bay is a shocker at the best of the times. It's set to be wet and slippery over the next week or so, so the Clyde Mountain will be treacherous. I do know that there'll be unmarked cars on the Clyde and right up and down the coast and an ongoing pattern of random breath testing stations....so do the right thing and be safe.

If you're getting away over the Xmas period, let me know where you're off to

Cool change

What a warm old night it was in the capital last night. How did you go sleeping ? I struggled a bit.

I'm so glad I don't live in Darwin or Townsville or even Brisbane, cos I'd very quickly get sick of those hot nights.

I'm looking forward to this cool change as much I'm looking forward to Xmas itself.

I hope it rains all day on Xmas day.

We're getting away to the Snowy Mountains in January and I'll be happy if it snows while we're there. I'm thinking that the chances of that are somewhat remote, but let's get the mercury down for a while

Christmas drinks

We were talking yesterday about the people around Australia who find themselves working on Xmas day. In the days that I've done it, I've found it an uplifting experience. There really is a lot of goodwill on Xmas day in Australia. That combined with the fact that everyone seems to feel so sorry for you if you happen to be working means that everyone is as nice as pie to you all day.

I'll tell you where I wouldn't want to be working on Xmas day is a hospital emergency unit.

Hospital emergency departments across Australia will again be as busy as on Xmas day and most of their work will be as a result, either directly or indirectly of alcohol consumption.

I know it's Xmas and traditionally we all have a bit of a drink....but for God's sake be sensible.

Trish Worth is the Chair of Drinkwise Australia. She's urging some restraint on Friday.

Rob De Castella is one of the sporting stars who has backed the call.

He's basically saying, 'Hey, lets make Christmas a day to remember rather than one you'd like to forget.'

He's specifically made the call that Christmas is not the time to introduce kids to alcohol. And he's right.

Have two or three on Christmas day....but there's no need to have eight or nine.

South Australian assault

I don't get violence. I never have. I'm a lover not a fighter. I could count on one hand the number of fights I had at school. I just alway thought it was more sensible to sort your problems with more peaceful means. As a consequence I really struggle to understand so much of the violence that goes on in this country of ours. I don't get it.

This story out of South Australia this morning made me shake my head.

Two brothers who bashed a father with a cricket bat and a crowbar while his 9 year old son watched have been jailed for 9 years in Adelaide. This whole scene started at a backyard barbecue. The victim, John Hack had obviously had a few too many.....he was a bit jolly and he apparently asked Glyn Dogherty's partner to show him her breasts. Probably not really the thing you do at a backyard barbecue. Glyn was outraged. He and his brother Ryan took to John with a cricket bat and a crowbar and bashed him to literally within an inch of his life.

John's 9 year old son watched the whole thing and he genuinely believed that his father was going to die. The attack happened in his own home. John Hack was put into an induced coma soon after the attack as medical staff had grave fears for his life.

I will never understand how anybody could inflict that sort of pain and injury on another person. I don't get that primitive brutality.

Glyn and Ryan Dougherty are behind bars where they belong.

Fitness kick

I know it's a strange old time to be losing weight, but I'm trying to do just that at the moment. I've put on 4 or 5 kilograms in the last 12 months and I don't want to keep on carrying it around. I've got the bike back on the road thanks to Simon from the bike shop at Florey. Went for a ride to Lake Ginninderra and back yesterday. That was hard work. I am old and unfit. I'm going to try and get out there again today.

So plenty of long walks over the Xmas break. Plenty of backyard cricket and some tennis and golf. I'd really like to get rid of about 7 kilograms in the next 3 months. Wish me luck.

And if you see me out on the bike, toot the horn and wave.

Brittany Murphy

So what do you make of the death of Brittany Murphy. 32 years of age. Super talented….super thin…..angelic smile…..eyes that seems to light up the world…..the sweetest voice and the world, not quite at her feet but certainly the promise of a lucrative and ongoing silver screen career after a couple of relatively quiet years.

So what went wrong ?

Brittany always seemed far too thin. I know that some people are just naturally petite, but you just always got the feeling that this wasn't a natural state for Brittany. There’s long been a suggestion that she’s an anorexia sufferer. Was her cardiac arrest and subsequent death as a consequence of the torrid journey that her tiny body has been through ?

There’s also been rumours of cocaine use. She’s denyed them of course, but you have to wonder.
There’s also talk of the massive range of prescription pills at her house…and a varying list of reasons that she had so many tablets. Some reports have suggested that she became addicted to pain killers after painful plastic surgery….but of course she’s also point blank denyed over the years that she ever had any plastic surgery.

This whole fame thing it seems isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Ask Tiger Woods about fame and see what’s he’s got to say about it.

So what killed Brittany Murphy. Did she die from fame. Was it the concoction of tablets a la Michael Jackson that pushed her little heart to the point that it couldn’t go on any longer ?

We were talking yesterday about the trouble she had on the set of that movie in Puerto Rico earlier in the year. She was fired from the movie a couple of weeks ago. We’re not entirely sure why, or whether it contributed to her downward spiral.

What we are seeing though is that that angelic smiling face….those stunning eyes……they were a mask. The smile wasn’t real. Underneath it all there was immense pain. A dangerous self doubt and a life of misery.
It’s a very sad story…..but I daresay it’s one that’s being played out in a number of other swish Hollywood addresses right now.

How is it that people who seemingly have so much, can have so very little.

Tutty

We caught up with one of Canberra's young sports stars yesterday in Jason Floros. Jason is a Tuggeranong boy. He's a cricketer of some note. So much so that he scored a rookie state cricket contract with Queensland this summer. He's been up in Brisbane plying his trade, playing club cricket and for the Qld second XI. Jason captained Queensland's team in the national U19 championships played here in Canberra and made a squillion runs. He's been selected in Australia's World Cup squad for the U19 cricket World Cup to be played in New Zealand in the new year. Jason is a quietly spoken, humble Tuggeranong boy. He's a young man of few words and it was refreshing to have him on the radio yesterday morning.

Another of our young Jason's carving an elite sports path in Melbourne. We spoke to young Jason Tutt the morning after he was drafted by AFL club the Western Bulldogs last month. He became the first Canberra player in a decade to be directly drafted into the AFL. Jason's being playing senior football for Ainslie after a stunning junior career with the Tuggeranong Bulldogs.

He's been in Melbourne now for 3 weeks and he's loving every minute of his new life. According to the Canberra Times, Tutty says that training for the Western Bulldogs is pretty much like training for Ainslie, it's just at a higher intensity. The young man is also tickled pink at the concept that fans seem to know his name and that he's signing autographs.

He's back in Canberra for a couple of weeks over Xmas before getting back into the pre season grind.

Good luck to him. We'll be following closely.

Where to find Xmas lights

Found this awesome site to locate Christmas lights displays in Canberra.

What a year

Well here we are in the home straight for 2009. Xmas is close. Before you know it, it’ll be 2010 and there’s another decade gone. Doesn’t time fly when you get as old as us.

And what a year it’s been.

At the start of this year I’d never heard of Julie Goodwin or Matt Preston. Although I’d heard Kristina Kenneally’s name, I really had no idea who she was.

You wind the clock back a year and Malcolm Turnbull was seemingly in control. He led the good ship Liberal Party with style. These days he’s exited to the life raft from where he’s throwing grenades at the boat and plotting to sink Tony Abbott. A year ago Tony Abbott was just a mere deckhand….look at him now up at the wheel in his budgie smugglers.

A year ago, we all thought that the Greens would make a mess of the parliamentry year on London Circuit. With 4 of them in the Legislative Assembly, sure disaster would follow, but they havne’t done too badly.

We’ve had stimulus packages……we’ve stood on the sidelines and watched the rest of the world struggle through the Global Financial Crisis in the same way that you sit in your lounge room and watch the epic struggle of State of Origin. We lost Michael Jackson……his strange life ended strangely. We watched tragedy in Melbourne’s hinterland and we lost more troops in Afghanistan.

I wonder what 2010 will hold.

The gloves are off in the Federal Political arena. It’s going to be a no holds barred punch up which if nothing else is going to be entertaining to watch. Is there anyway that the seemingly impossible could happen and the conservatives could win. Surely not.

And could 2010 be the year that all Rugby League players pull their heads in and become model citizens. I would have thought was about as likely as an Abbott victory

Spider invasion

Who kills the spiders at your place. I'm the chief Arachnid remover around at the Parton household. I used the shoe method of extermination. That is, pulling off my right shoe...which is a big size 12....sizing up the spider's location and then giving it a good whack. It can a delicate exercise because you want to make the kill on the first whack....you don't want to go chasing the bloody thing around the room with a shoe in hand.

I had to do the deed with a 7 legged huntsman at home this morning at around 3 oçlock.

Sometime it gives me a bit of pain, because he seemed like a likeable spider as far as spiders go. He was on the wall by the computer at home. He looked up at me with his many eyes and we shared a moment in the pre-dawn.

He suggested that he'd just try to stay out of everybodies way...and couldn't I just leave him be. He put up a strong compassionate case and he did point out that he was handicapped after losing a leg as a young spider. I considered his case for a moment and then brought he size 12 Windsor Smiths down on the intruder.

Gottim first go.

Who does the spider job at your place ?

Anniversary journalism

I found a piece on New Matilda.com yesterday about anniversary journalism. It was all about the sometimes lazy practice of running stories about big anniversary events....so like the 40th anniversary of the moon landing and the 20th anniversary of self government in the ACT. James West says that The annoying thing about regular news for editors and broadcast producers is, of course, that you can't predict it. Anniversary journalism, on the other hand, is just about the easiest thing to put together: interviews lined up for days, reporters assigned weeks in advance.

And didn't we have some big anniversarys this year. There were some monsters. The moon landing of course was massive. We had the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall...what else, the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square's big drama.

Next years anniversary don't seem to be as exciting.

In 2010 we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Boeing 747 going into service, the 40th anniversary of Gaddaffi becoming leader in Libya....I bet that'll be big, at least in Libya. What else...ummm....it'll be 20 years since the first McDonalds opened in Russia...big deal. This one might be big though, we'll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela

Tiger...I'm over it.

I saw one of those meaningless stories on some website yesterday ranking the stories of the last decade in order of....well I don't know quite what. They were giving a top ten of big stories in the so called noughties....and what do you think they ranked at number one ? They've gone with Tiger Woods fall from grace as the biggest story of the decade. Really ?

Gifted athlete does the dirty on his wife. That's seriously the biggest story of the decade ? I wouldn't have thought.

I'm over it to be honest. I'm drawing a line in the sand and saying enough is enough. Tiger Woods has failed monumentally, but I can't really see the point in us getting some sort of sadistic joy by watching his life implode now. I'm not interested in covering the story. I feel for his wife. I feel for his family. I feel for Tiger, despite the fact that it's all his doing, but I'm sick of hearing about it and sick of talking about it.

As far as I'm concerned it's between them now. I don't care who's wearing a wedding ring and who's not. I don't care what the lovers have got to say. I'm not interested in a blow by blow of is she leaving or is she staying. Let's leave them be....I'm over it.

All over for another year

I was up at Parliament House last night for end of year drinks with Senator Gary Humphries and his staff. It was a good laid back night. They did a BBQ in the senate courtyard. Parliament House was abuzz all day yesterday and into the night as the UC Graduation ceremonies played out. I saw so many proud students there last night in silly hats…it was wonderful. Well done to all of those who’ve slogged it out this year and achieved what they wanted to achieve.

Well done to all those who’ve done the hard yards in the schools and colleges as well. It’s all over for another year. The results are on the table.

The marks have all be analysed and among the results is that the best performing college here as far as median tertiary admission rank goes is Canberra Girls Grammar. They scored a median rank of 87.70. Well done to Canberra Girls Grammar and to Radford College who were just behind them along with Narrabundah College.
The top ranking in the ACT went to Timothy Boston from Radford who scored a 99.95.

So leave the books and the study behind for a while. Get some sleep. Relax. Get ready for Xmas and we can do it all again next year

Double demerits

A really simple driving message for the holiday season. Don't speed. Simple as that.

If you do exceed the limit over the Xmas period, there's every chance they'll get you.

Double demerits will be in force from Xmas eve till January 3. I reckon they should leave them in force all the way through Summernats.

If you're Sydney bound, they may get you from the air. NSW Police will be using a cessna aircraft to track speeding motorists. The plane will be based at Marulan. Watch out for it...cos it will be watching out for you.

Internet filtering

Net freaks are outraged over the internet filter plans of the Rudd Government. The level of anger over this is unprecedented and I don't fully understand why it's such a hot button. There is mortal fear of censorship of any nature because.....well, I don't know why. Because of nightmares of Big Brother and this belief that within a wink we could become just like China, which clearly we couldn't.

My biggest concerns over Stephen Conroy's plan surround the practical nuts and bolts of it. I don't think it's going to work.

I'm fascinated as to why Stephen Conroy sat on this report into the filtering trial for 3 months before finally releasing it this week. This was a six week trial that it took them a year to get off the ground. And then it was only barely off the ground. One of the ISP's involved was Nelson Bay Online. Mark Newton informs us on www.newmatilda.com that only 15 of their customers chose to participate.

The report on the trial fails to answer a number of huge questions. The biggest of those is on the subject of network performance and how it is likely to be effected by the internet filter. More from Mark Newton from Newmatilda....

Another performance question that's unanswered by the report is so simple even Senator Conroy should be able to understand it.
Conroy has spent two years telling Australia that the only important factor that would justify or inhibit a censorship regime was network performance. Why, then, did his trial fail to test network performance at any speed faster than 8 megabits per second? Since April, Conroy has been touting a National Broadband Network which runs at 100 megabits per second — over 12 times faster than the fastest speed tested by Enex Testlab. None of the trial's technical specs, published in Appendix 1 of the report, approach that speed. Most of them actually show notable "flat-spots" between 7 and 8 megabits per second that are indicative of bottlenecks.
What is the nature of those bottlenecks? We don't know because the report doesn't tell us. So we're now confronted with the prospect of a Government marching into a 100 megabit future — with absolutely no idea whether their mandatory censorship system will be able to keep up.

I don't really give two hoots about this whole censorship 'big brother' conspiracy, but based on what we've seen thus far, I have doubts over whether or not this is going to work.

Cyclone Laurence

The town of Derby is bracing itself for the might of Cyclone Laurence this morning. I don't know about Laurence for the name of a cyclone. I always think of cyclone as being rough and rugged brawling types...and I don't believe I've ever met a Laurence who I would put in that category.

I understand that Cyclone Mick did cause loss of life in Fiji, but in terms of it's name, I'm much happier with Mick as the name for a cyclone. Mick or Harry....or Chopper....have they ever had a Cyclone Chopper. Now that would be a cyclone.

Laurence may turn out to be a rough and rugged brawling type. We'll find out at first light in Derby. It's expected to hit the town at they're time 5am....so that's 8am our time. They're expecting winds of up to 230 ks an hour and heavy rain.

I've never actually experienced a cyclone....I never lived that far north. Have you ? We've got have some Darwinians or Townsvillians listening this morning. Who's been through the whole cyclone saga ? Share your stories with us.

As far as Cyclone Laurence, Koolan and Cockatoo Island are also under threat this morning.

The numbers

So the interest rates…what’s going to happen next. Well I’ll tell you what will happen next. They’ll go up again at the next junction which is Feb. That will be the fourth consecutive rise.

We got to see the minutes of the December meeting yesterday and those who do this stuff for a living are of the opinion that the rates will rise again in Feb. Some are even suggesting that they’ll continue the trend in March, but that at some stage after that things will become static for a while

New figures out yesterday showed the first increase in home building starts since mid last year.
Today we get to see the Gross Domestic Product info. We’re set to see evidence that the economy grew in the September quarter, but not by much.

Iron man

Hey, can I share with you something that I don't fully understand.

I cannot walk out of the house unless I've ironed what I'm wearing. Whatever it is. Even on the weekend when I might just slip on down to Florey shops to grab eggs on Sunday morning. So I'm just wearing boardies and a daggy old tee shirt. But I'll always run an iron over the tee shirt.

What is that about ?

My night time ritual after dinner during the week always involves working out what I'm wearing in the morning and ironing it because there's nothing worse than ironing a shirt at 3am. But some of my male friends have said to me, 'why do you bother...it's not like you're on TV. Nobody sees you.'

Well, that's wrong. People do see me. Matty sees me. Suzy sees me. The guy from the servo sees me and I need to iron.

Don't you hate it when you get served by some 17 year old at Woolies. They're wearing the green shirt as required, but it looks as though they slept in it....it hasn't been ironed at all. I hate that.

Am I anal ?

Canberra Centre parking

So what do you think of the new parking system at the Canberra Centre ? How cool is that. There are two aspects of it. Each parking space has a light above it which is illuminated either in red or in green depending on whether or not it's vacant. And there are the electronic signs which show you how many parking spots are available on each level. It's all very very cool. Unless you're red/green colourblind....as a quarter of the male population is.

I'm badly colourlbind. I can't tell the difference between the red and green lights above those car parks. They look exactly the same to me. Surely I'm not the only one.

I was talking to Nat on Twitter about it yesterday. He asked me an obvious question. He said, do you see them as green or red ? I don't know. Aren't red and green the same anyway.

You may wonder how I tell the difference between the red and green on traffic lights.

Well, for starters, red is on the top and green is on the bottom. But additionally, the green light on traffic lights has a lot of white in it. I see it as a white light with a touch of green in it. Cannot tell the difference between the amber and the red, but the red and green are very different to me.

Best Xmas present.

John Kerr was taking calls earlier in the morning about the Xmas present in your past that still sticks in your mind. The one that you most remember.

I can still remember the morning that I woke on Xmas morning, and the very first thing I saw was a bright yellow dragster bike right next to my bed. I thought I was dreaming. I couldn't quite believe it. I think I would have been about 9 years old. My father must have assembled the bike till well into the night the night before. They must have gone so close to waking me up just wheeling it into the bedroom.

I think it was about 6:30 or 7 when I woke and I wheeled the bike outside and started riding up and down the street in my pyjamas.

I loved that bike. It had a big long banana seat. It had streamery things coming out of the handlebar grips. I got a yellow one and my big brother Dean scored a red one.

We always had Xmas lunch at our place. We lived in a little country town called York. It's about 100k's east of Perth. All of the relly's used to come to us for Xmas lunch. I can remember the anticipation as we waited for the first of the cars from the Perth convoy to arrive cos we couldn't open presents till then. Mum would always do a big roast turkey and we'd have a ham as well. We'd all eat lunch in the big dining room wearing silly Xmas hats and most of the adults would end up sleeping it off later in the afternoon.

The demon drink

Are we drowning in an ocean of alcohol in this country ? That's the question to be asked after Operation Unite. Here in Canberra, although the arrest numbers were far less than other juristictions when you balance it out against our population they don't look all that flash.

We do have a drinking problem in Australia....and it's as bad here as it is anywhere else in the country.

Don't be thinking that we're doing any better here because we're not.

More and more young Canberrans are getting into strife through excessive drinking. The courts are buckling under the pressure. Victims groups are being run off their feet. The number of drinking driving cases has reached record levels. Domestic violence cases with an alcohol link are skyrocketing.

We are drowning in alcohol and I don't know how we reverse the trend. There's a piece in the Canberra Times about it this morning quoting Jon White, the Director of Public Prosecutions. He's said that he's worried by the amount of crime that was related to binge drinking in the community. He says that his office spends a significant portion of it's time dealing with drink related offences.

Are we not smart enough as a community to act on this ? Surely the time has come to turn Operation Unite into something longer term, to toughen up penalties.....to give the police more powers and to cut back the opening hours of licensed venues. The time to act is now.

Surely we have to go down the path of a licensed venue lock out or even reducing hours all told.

Jillian's email

Got an email in from Jillian who had a bad experience in Canberra on the weekend. Thought I'd share it with you.

Hello Mark,

I listen to your show most mornings and find it's a great way to start the day. My mother has come to stay with me over Xmas from Grafton. It's been nearly a year since I've seen her and it's so good to have her here. She arrived on Friday and we decided to 'hit the town' on Friday night to celebrate her arrival. Mum is 67. She's a 'poker machine queen' and it's been such a long time since we've been out together.

I won't tell you which club we went to because that's probably not a good thing for them. It's just around the corner from my house and we went down on Friday for dinner and then to have a go at the machines. While we were playing a group of men who'd been celebrating an end of year do close to us got louder and louder and started to get a bit rowdy. They were swearing loudly and two of the men in particular were getting agitated with each other. We were doing our best to ignore them, but it was impossible to do so.

I looked around for a staff member but couldn't see one in our vicinity. Without warning, my Mother then stood up and asked the men if they could 'tone it down.' As quick as a wink, the bearded man told her to 'F Up you silly old cow' which as you can imagine was very distressing for both of us. And then it all broke loose. One of the other men stepped forward and punched the bearded man in the face and before long 4 or 5 of them were wrestling and punching each other. At one stage two of the men virtually fell on my mother. We were both very frightened. We quickly got away and left for the car to drive home.

We were both very shaken by the whole thing, but more than that we were devastated that this city has deteriorated to the point that my mother and I can't go out and enjoy a night at the pokies. That's not fair and I thought I should tell you what's going on out there in the suburbs. Operation Unite didn't help Mum and I on our Friday night out.


That's from Jillian. Doesn't that make your blood boil. That really isn't fair. I'd love to know which club it was. I bet I could narrow it down to a couple.

Band aid removal

When it comes to removing band aids, are you a gently gently operator....or do you just rip it off.

I tend to go hard and get it over with...and this morning we learn that officially, that's the way to go.

Dead set, we've got genuine research out this morning that suggests that the optimum way to remove a bandaid is to rip it off quickly.

They did this research at James Cook University in Cairns. I'm stuggling to believe that this was a genuine research project, but it was. They put band aids on 65 medical students and then removed them using either the slow or the fast technique. The students then had to rate the pain level.

The average pain score for fast removal was .92 and for slow removal was a whopping 1.58.

So there you go. It's been decided officially finally. The best way to remove a band aid is to just rip it off hard and fast.

There is some conjecture about the male/female pain figures out of this survey because you see men said that it hurt more than did the women folk. This led the girls to leap up and declare that the pain thresh hold of the fairer sex is greater than that for men, which is clearly rubbish. Us blokes just have more body hair....that's why it hurts the blokes more.

Fyshwick Fire

Another fire in Fyshwick on the weekend. You probably heard the sirens on Friday night. The fire was at Auswest Timbers on Geelong Street. Not sure what started it, but I do know the police are looking very closely at it.

The suggestion this morning is that it may have been an electrical fault.

It got a bit hairy there for a while on Friday night. There was a period during which it looked as though it may spread to nearby shops, but luckily that wasn’t the case.

Auswest Timbers will now be out of operation till mid January. Not sure what that means for the staff there. I gather a number of them will be used in the clean up operation in the next month or so.

80 fires continue to burn across NSW. 3 of them in particular are giving emergency services grief. These are the fires burning in the Blue Mountains, near Casino and near Tamworth.

We’ve got some stifling weather on the way this week. I dread to think where those fires will be at come Wednesday when we’ve got 35 forecast.

New art at Deakin

I reckon we’ve got some shocking public art in this town. I reckon the worst of it is that grass sculpture monstrosity on the Gungahlin Drive Extension. It’s not all bad though.
I’m actually looking forward to this new piece of public art at the Deakin shops…have you heard about this one. It’s a 2 metre tall bronze bust of Australia’s second prime minister…and it’s not just any old bronze bust. It represents three different phases of Alfred Deakin’s life in a sort of 3d jigsaw puzzle look. Very impressive.
It’ll be by the middle of next year and I’m looking forward to it.

Another leadership challenge

We’ve seen some pretty ugly leadership spills in recent weeks. We may still get another before Xmas. The drama and the theatre of the Federal Liberal spill was unprecedented and it went right down to the wire. It had the press gallery and most of Australia hanging by a thread to the very end. Tony Abbott became the Stephen Bradbury of Australian politics by somehow remaining to stay on his skates when Joe and Malcolm stumbled.

The NSW Labor spill had many similarities. Certainly the result was still in the balance till the very end. So who else is under the pump ? Which other public figure should be looking over their shoulder ? I'm really worried about Rudolph.....this is the reindeer guy, the one with the red schnozz. Rudolph seems like a nice fella and he's got all of these reindeer friends who seem to like him too......but I don't think all is as it appears.

You turn the clock back a little while and Rudolph was a bit of an outcast. He was a reindeer nerd. The others didn't like him and they made that abundantly clear. He was shunned by the group and he was a lonely sad reindeer. One day the boss comes in....that's Santa of course and gave him this plum job leading the sleigh. And then.....all of a sudden, he had all of these instant friends. In fact the story goes that all of the reindeer loved him and they were shouting out "Yipee" with some glee.

How shallow are these reindeer ?

How can you go from despising someone and treating them like a leper and then in the next breath they're your best friends and your shouting things out with glee, whether it be "yippee" or something entirely different. Maybe we need to ask this of Julie Bishop. The rest of the reindeer had obviously backed the wrong horse and were caught wrong hoofed when Rudolph was installed as the leader. Methinks they may be plotting his demise as we speak.

I think Rudolph needs to have a good hard look at his colleagues and shore up their support between now and Xmas. I fear a Nathan Rees style stabbing. I wonder what the rest of the reindeer are saying to Santa behind his back and when their true position will be revealed. Don't turn your back Rudolph because you may find a knife in it …or even a set of antlers.

Health promises

I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bit sick of the Rudd Government's propensity to talk all day long, but do nothing. I'm over it. That theme is so evident when it comes to health and hospitals. The talk emanating from the PM on hospitals in the 07 election campaign was clear and strong. It couldn't have been more clear. Mr Rudd declared that he would fix the hospital system. He even gave a deadline for it. If it wasn't in better shape by the middle of 09, he would step in boldly and take hospitals away from the states.

Now despite the fact that Federal agencies report that things haven't improved, the PM has backed away from that claim, if not in words, though inaction. He's declared that rather than make radical changes, it's time to talk some more about changes that might be made. Let's write some more reports....let's pay some more consultants, let's be seen to be moving in the right direction.

Today we also learn that Kevin's promise to build 35 GP super clinics across the nation hasn't come to fruition. Only one of those centres is up and running after two years. Things aren't looking good for the other 34 and for most it looks like they are pure fantasy.

Fascinating story around this morning regarding elective surgery waiting lists. Private Hospitals are offering to perform 323,000 elective surgery operations, if the Government pays. This would wipe out the nations elective surgery waiting lists.

The offer is there. Rather than just talk about it for a year....why not just do it.

I'm sick of the talk and ready for some action.

Abbott reshuffle.

So how's about the new Opposition front bench. Some surprises in there. I didn't think that Tony would be brave enough to elevate Bronwyn Bishop back to the front bench. Try as I might, I couldn't fully accept that Barnaby Joyce would be Finance Minister and I certainly didn't believe there was a snowballs chance in hell of Gary Humphries finding himself on the front bench.

All of the above are now reality.

Has Tony Abbott wound the dial too far to the right ?

I think he may have.

I think it's wonderful that Tony is taking the fight to the Government. I'm sure that Barnaby and Nick Minchin and Eric Abbetz will provide some colourful attacks on the Government. They will redefine the Libs. But will they alienate the centre right voters.

And is Barnaby Joyce up to the task of Shadow Finance Minister ? Tony Abbott has described Barnaby Joyce as the best retail politician in the country. Will that translate to an effective front bencher with a complex portfolio. I know about Barnaby's background in accounting, but I still worry about his ability to bring this one off.

Gary Humphries surely can't believe his luck. He's gone to the races, put all of his money on the horse of his choice. It's gone down by a short half head, but the bookmakers have paid out on his ticket nevertheless.

As far as Greg Hunt goes.....I think he's got the really interesting job. In theory nothing much has changed for Greg. He was the Envirnoment Shadow. They've now changed his portfolio title. He's the Shadow Minister for Climate Change.

Being the Shadow Minister for Climate Change under Tony Abbott is like being in charge of making pizzas at a McDonalds franchise. He'll stand there all day waiting for a pizza order. How long will it take him to realise that there are no pizza's on the menu.

ACT Racing

The racing game in the ACT is up against it. Up against it because of the recent economic downturn, but also because of the size of this juristiction. It's so difficult for the racing clubs to keep prizemoney up to to competitive level. When so much of the industrys income is based on betting turnover it often finds itself in a precarious and uncertain position.

Andrew Barr is the Minister for Gaming and Racing. He's stepped in to try to shore up the racing industry's future in the ACT. At the moment interstate betting operators can offer better services on ACT races without having to pay a zak to anyone here. That's set to change next year.

As of March 1st next year, ACT racing clubs will be able to charge betting operators in other states for the privelige of betting on our races. It's not a new concept. In fact the legislation has been based on what the other states are doing.

The size of the possible windfall is unclear. There's talk of it injecting as much as $1.5 million into the industry. Let's hope it doesn't inspire some of the betting services to drop coverage of our events. I don't think it will....and even if somehow it does, we're not getting anything out of the current situation, so who cares.

It looks as though this has been thought through thoroughly and that it will cause the desired effect.

We'll see what happens from March next year.

Robbery in Deakin

Got an email overnight from my friend Adam who had a rough night last night. He was set to catch a bus to go to work soon after 11 last night when he was robbed of his laptop. Here's some of what he told me.


I made my way down to the bus stop at 11:15. I had my laptop and backpack on me, and was waiting for the 11:30 bus to take me into civic. Not long after I got to the bus stop I saw a car drive past with 4-5 people inside. It looked like an early model dark green Toyota. I noticed the people inside the car were looking at me as they drove past. They turned into the next corner street and stopped. From what I could tell, possibly 2 or 3 people got out. I thought they were just dropping some people off after a night out.

Next thing I know two young individuals were in front of me at the bus stop (on the corner of Hopetoun circuit & MacGregor St in Deakin). They asked me how I was going & then asked where all my stuff was (I had placed it next to the chair in the bus stop so I didn’t put a strain on my shoulder while I waited for the bus). I said what stuff? They then produced one of those large pullout knives & said give me your laptop or I’ll mess you up with this knife. I was quite shocked at this stage & responded “are you serious?” to which they responded “yes, give me your laptop or else we’ll mess you up”.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do as this sort of thing has never happened to me in my entire life! I even offered them a smoke but they wern’t interested in that, they wanted my laptop. At this point my heart was beating a mile a minute, so I decided to give them my laptop, as they appeared to be getting quite agitated, the guy next to him said just give us your f****g laptop or we’ll beat the shit out of you. The second youth took the laptop and ran off, while his partner stood there for a minute & asked “do you have any cash on you?” I responded no & they said bullshit, I said seriously I got no money on me, I’ve just given you my laptop what more do you want? They seemed satisfied with this & left.

I spent the next 10 minutes in complete denial. Did this just happen to me? I basically hid in the shadows until the bus arrived, no way in f hell am I going to run back to my place when these guys could possibly come back! So I waited & eventually the bus rocked up. I got on & told the bus driver what happened. He immediately radioed in to Action what had happened & requested if they could call the police to see if there were any cars in the area. About 10 minutes later they radioed back saying that two police officers & two action supervisors would meet me at the civic interchange. The bus driver took me straight there, not following the usual route as I was the only one on the bus.

I met the police officers & action supervisors & gave my statement. After this the police officers offered to escort me to my work which I accepted. I stayed there for awhile, but at that point I was quite shocked at what had happened to me & called my supervisor requesting a relief. I’m now at home, am quite shocked & bloody angry at what happened! How can this happen in Deakin?

Am quite considering leaving Canberra over this, but I would also like to say a big thank you to Action & Canberra police for their assistance, I realise I probably won’t get that laptop back, but I felt quite safe on the bus & with the police officers at civic interchange. I really don’t know how to deal with what happened tonight, I really don’t!!

Adam...I feel for you. That's rough. You shouldn't have to put up with that. And it says that you can't really go catching buses at 11:30 at night which is a sad thing.

Did I see that on Win News last night ?

Hey did you watch Win News last night. Did you see Joy Burch at the launch of this blue print for young Canberrans. I have to double check that you saw the same thing as I did, because I’m not absolutely certain that I saw what I saw. I’m sure that Joy Burch, the new Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, when questioned on the details of the blue print....I'm sure that Joy Burch said "I haven't actually read the plan." And that she then added, "Can you cut that out please".

What's going on there ?

Joy what are you doing ?

We're paying you over a 150K to read these reports or at least to be bright enough at the press conference to bluff.

And yes, I know we've had discussions privately about this period where you getting up to speed and that I understand you've been dropped in the deep end and it takes a bit of time to find your feet, but honestly. You can't, as the Minister responsible, launch a plan and admit that you haven't read the bloody thing.

Come on Joy...get it together.

Health reform

I wonder what's going to happen in Brisbane today regarding our health system. For months the Prime Minister has been talking tough when it comes to hospitals. In that interview that keeps on being replayed by Steve Price, among others, the Mr Rudd promised that if health care didn't improve in 12 months then he'd be moving and taking federal control of our hospitals.

"The buck stops with me," he repeated in Keating style.

That deadline has long passed and the Government's own reporting agencies have reported that indeed health services haven't improved. There's been a some discussion about the whole thing, but not much more. Was it just a hollow campaign promise from the Prime Minister ?

I guess we'll find out today.

I'm told that our health system will dominate discussions at the COAG meeting in Brisbane today. The PM is going into the discussions with plans for reform. There is apparently a plan to cut red tape in the health sector, improving primary care, opening more beds and cutting surgery waiting lists.

Most of those seem like fantasy, but at least their talking about them at the highest level today.

Tony Abbott, the new Opposition Leader has indicated that his party is deadset against a Federal takeover of the hospital system. I think he may have been a little hasty in ruling it out. We'll see what the PM puts on the table today.

Raodside drug testing

Jeremy Hanson's put what is a really sensible worthwhile idea on the table this morning. The Oppostion's police spokesman thinks that we should follow the lead set by some other states and start roadside drug testing on Canberra roads. So we're talking cannabis, ecstasy and amphetemines.

The Opposition are putting this one on the table in the Legislative Assembly this week, the final sitting week for the Assembly. I do hope it's given due consideration by the Government.

This is quite similar to what's been in place for years as far as blood alcohol testing. Police would test you on the roadside with an oral swab. If you test positive, you face the same sort of penalties as is the case for drinking driving. According to the Canberra Times, every other state bar Tasmania has the provision to do this on their lawbook. Why don't we ?

It is illegal to drive under the influence of drugs in the ACT, but it's almost meaningless, because it's not as if you're going to get caught.

The ACT Government has apparently been considering roadside drug testing for a while. They issued a discussion paper last year. What the hell is that.....a discussion paper ? I don't think we need a discussion paper on this one. Let's just do it.

Weekend at Parto's

Had a great weekend around at my place. Nothing really special. Watched a bit of cricket. Got the washing done. Mowed the lawns. Got most of the Xmas shopping done....well, it was Vanessa Jayne who did most of that cos she's much better at present buying than I am.

Is it bad that we always have a cooked breakfast on the weekend. We don't usually do it on both mornings. It's usually Sundays. Bacon, poached eggs, fried tomatoes, big thick toast, OJ, freshly ground coffee and hash browns. Yeah ! That was the deal yesterday morning.

The girls and I ended up Dickson pool of all places yesterday and I even got in for a swim which I'm sure was a bit scary for all those present.

And last night.....last night we a heart attack on a plate for dinner.

If there is an ultimate comfort food on this earth...I think it's gnocchi. Whatever's going wrong in your life, whatever's not right on the planet, it all dissipates when you bite into one of those gorgeous gnocchi parcels. I don't make it myself. I bought the pre-made gnochhi from the supermarket, but let me talk you through how we had it...cos this was very very nice.

I fried up some crushed garlic for a few mins. Added some white wine...we were drinking a cleanskin Sav Blanc and it did the trick. I dropped in a few tablespoons of pesto and whole 300 ml tub of cream. Then right at the end, I added a few handfuls of chopped chicken just from a BBQ chook and some chopped basil.

Do you reckon it was any good ?

Everything in the world is good when you're eating gnocchi.

Kristina Keneally

New South Wales Labor. What a shambles. Another year, another Premier. Nathan Rees injected as much poison as he could into the party yesterday knowing full well that his game was done. Those of us on the outside weren't sure who was going to be installed in the top job. My mail was on Frank Sartor. It wasn't to be. My other mail was that whoever won the spill, Julie Bishop had offered to be deputy leader and a loyal one at that.

You look at what went on in New South Wales Labor yesterday and you begin to think that maybe they handle these things better in Fiji and Honduras. If ever there was a time when a military coup was called for, I think New South Wales is it.

Who's with me on that ?

When Frank came to power in Fiji, there wasn't much cloak and dagger about it. They basically announced the day before that there was going to be a coup the following day. I think that's the way to do it. Barry O'Farrell and his team could all put boot polish on their faces and storm the Government offiices touting guns. They wouldn't need live ammo...they'd just have to wave them around a bit. In fact, the go may be to go with paintball guns. There'd be no point holding members of the Government for ransom because nobody would pay money to keep them breathing, so you'd just have to exile them to.....I dunno.....maybe to Queensland. They could all tramp up there and give Anna Bligh a hand in sinking Queensland.

For those in New South Wales, my question to you this morning is this.

Would you rather Kristina Keneally as Premier ?

Or would you have rather gone with a military coup ?

Ronnie Wood

Ronnie Wood is not a real person. He's a cartoon character. He was probably originally devised for an appearance on the Simpsons. He's got crazy eyes. His hair isn't real. He's a cartoon character.

Ronnie is of course a member of the Rolling Stones and at 62 he's still intent on living the life of a rock and roll star. He's hooked up with a Russian girlie who is 42 years younger than he.

Well I can tell you that he spent the day behind bars yesterday. He was arrested for alledgely assaulting his ridiculously young companion. They were having a blue outside their flat in Surrey. The coppers were called and they took him away in a paddy wagon. This could be an episode of The Bill couldn't it ?

He was eventually released on bail to re-appear in court in late January.

I don't think I want to be rich and famous. Those in the showbiz world can't seem to remain as regular humans. Give me normality over all that money any day.

Bring on the cricket

So how long do you think it'll take us to beat the West Indies in Adelaide ? I wouldn't want to be holding onto tickets for Mondays play because I would think it will be all over by then.

Chris Gayle has got no idea when it comes to the longer form of the game. He's clearly not interested. At the pre game press conference yesterday he conceded that he didn't know anything about Doug Bollinger. He couldn't even remember his name. I think he said they might try to track down some video footage of him overnight.

Ricky Ponting is suggesting that the Adelaide pitch will suit the old soldier Chanderpaul. He's dreaming.

They will get smashed. I do hope that Nathan Hauritz can continue to get wickets. I've been one of his detractors in recent months but I'll be the first to applaud if his good form continues. Bring on the cricket. She's on from 10:30 this morning on Win.

Woolies and Supabarn

So let me get this straight. Woolworths supermarkets....the fresh food people, the retailing giant who have imposed their will on Australia like no other supermarket chain has in the past....the retailer who together with Coles have succeeded in seeing Australian food prices rise more in the last 10 years than any other western country. Woolworths have stood up straight faced and accused Supabarn of stifling the market here in Canberra.

Fair crack of the whip !

They're referring to sites like the Canberra Centre. One of the few places in the country where Supabarn can operate with the same sort of approach to the giants. Woolies say that Supabarn should do the right thing and remove the exclusivity clause from places like the Canberra Centre to let them and Coles in.

Fancy Woolies coming up against an operator who is stifling competition. Get a grip Woolworths

Grab a coke

My 21 year old moved out with her boyfriend this year. She pops back around home a bit. She's back for dinner tonight which is wonderful.

What I want to know is this. How come when my 21 year old drops back home, home come she goes to the fridge and grabs a can of coke as soon as she gets in.....but I wouldn't dream of doing the same at her place ?

Why is that ?

I guess it's a good thing. I guess it means she's feels home still.

I don't get boxing.

I don't get boxing as a sport. I don't get a sport where the only way to win is to beat the crap out of your opponent. I've never understood it and I don't think I ever will.

Who saw this fight last night ? It was over in 2 minutes. What a rip off ?

I'd never even heard of Roy Jones Junior. He's been described as a legend. Is he ? He looks like a man who I wouldn't want to fight, but I'm not really the fighting kind. I think if I was writing a movie script, 'Roy Jones Junior' could well be a name that I would choose for a character who was supposed to be a boxer.

Who get's boxing ?

While we're on it...who get's having that many tattoos on one's arm ? What is that about ?

The year of the Wing Nut

What happened in the Liberal party room on Tuesday morning was above politics. I’m hoping it was the start of a revolution…a signal that a large number of downtrodden, forgotten Australians are about to stand up and be heard. I’m talking about ‘wing-nuts’. Tony Abbott is a wing-nut. So am I.

Our ears are unique. They come out of heads at a rather extreme angle. If we’re not wearing budgie smugglers, our ears are the first thing that people look at when they look at us. National Senator Barnaby Joyce has suggested this week that Tony Abbott answers the door in his undies, and this is why. It takes the attention away from his ears and I can fully understand his position. When the Foxtel guy came to install our service he said to me "You won’t need a sattelite dish mate, just face that way." We’ve been laughed at. People have said nasty things about us behind our backs. We’ve been embarrassed. In the 70’s and 80’s we tried to do our hair in a way that would hide the enormity of our ears, but after yesterday it’s time for ‘wing-nuts’ to be proud.

Thanks to Summer Heights High, this year may have been the year of the ‘ranga’. 2010 is set to be the year of the ‘wing-nut’. Tony Abbott is leading the way. I’m right behind him along with Adam Gilchrist and Prince Charles. You can’t keep us down now. I spoke to a number of other ‘wing-nuts’ on my radio program in Canberra during the week and they are brimming with pride at what Mr Abbott has done. And it’s not just that he’s got ‘sticky-out ears’, it’s about the fact that he wears them with pride.

Henry called us to say that "Days like this may lead us to the time that the phrase ‘Cheers Big Ears’ will have a positive connotation."

My hope is that big ears will become so fashionable that eventually those with normally proportioned, streamlined ears may consider having surgery to get them pointing out into the atmosphere at crazy angles. And while we’re on ear surgery, can anyone confirm whether or not Jimmy Barnes had the ‘ear pin-back’ job done back in the 70’s or early 80’s. In some of those early Barnes shots his ears seem to be at a different angle.

One of my listeners Mike rang to remind me of the last time a genuine ‘wing-nut’ assumed control of the Liberal party. Billy McMahon lasted a year and 9 months as Liberal leader before it all went pear shaped. Come to think of it, his ears were pear shaped. The power of the wing-nut didn’t work for Sir William. Only time will tell whether those counting votes for Tony Abbott will say…."I think the ears have it."

International reaction to Abbott's change of direction

There's mixed reaction around the world to the voting down of the ETS legislation in the Australian Senate. We spoke with Patrick Gibson from Evil Conservative Radio in New York earlier in the morning. He was over the moon at the rise of Tony Abbott and the defeat of the ETS legislation. He suggested that news had brought optimism to Americans.

British economist Nicholas Stern hasn't reacted in quite the same way. He's come out and said that Australia's politicians are 'profoundly mistaken' if they think tackling climate change is too difficult or costly. He's dismissed climate change sceptics as muddled and confused.

He was talking at the London School of Economics yesterday. He said and I quote.... "If Australia were to take a view that it's all too difficult and costly that would be extremely damaging and it would also be profoundly mistaken"

Paul Owen has a different view on his blog.

Isn't democracy wonderful. Or at least it is when it works properly and our elected representatives think for themselves.

Australia has been trying - as we did last year, albeit with little or no dissent - to push through legislation curbing CO2 by imposing swingeing energy taxes. The Liberals (Australia's conservatives) have dumped their leader and replaced him with someone with a rather more independent and sceptical mindset.

How refreshing it is when politicians actually think for themselves and challenge orthodoxies and the lazy thinking of the AGW religion. Is Australia going to make any difference on its own? Of course it isn't. Neither is Britain. Yet our leaders pose and preen and aspire to lead the world on climate change. Real leadership would be questioning the consensus, asking awkward questions about what these cuts will achieve and what it will cost us going forward.

Even if you accept the flawed science which blames man for climate change/global warming call it what you will, the proposed cure is worse than the disease. The new Liberal leader Tony Abbott has just pointed out what the blogosphere has been saying for months or years. It makes no sense and political posing on the issue is just abdicating responsibility.

Congratulations to Australia for having a functioning democracy and a Parliament which actually does its job. They have shown the world the way.


Our change of direction has received a fair bit of coverage around the world particularly in Britain.

Fruit Loops

You know, I still reckon that one of the beautiful things about having kids is that you can always choose, if you want to, to have fruit loops for breakfast out of the blue. That's just what I did this morning. Nothing like a bowl of fruit loops from time to time.

Tiger Woods...more drama

More drama for Tiger Woods. As he recovers from last weeks äccident"outside his home, he may well be hiding the golf clubs after revelations this morning that a second woman is claiming to have had an affair with the Tige. Her name is Jaimee Grubbs...she's an LA Waitress.

She says she's got voice mail messages and she's not afraid to use them. We're expecting audio files sometime tomorrow.

Abby's back...but not Loz yet.

The Canberra Capitals are preparing for the return of the great one. Lauren Jackson looked a silly chance of returning for the Bendigo game this weekend. She has succumbed to this nagging back injury and it's not going to happen this weekend. Probably next game. We're going to go out and see her play when she's playing in Canberra. You should too. She's a world class athlete and she's back to the place that it all started.

This back thing doesn't sound pretty. She's got stress fractures in her back and as a consequence she's spending hours every day in at the gym at the A.I.S.doing weight sessions, pilates and cardio work. I don't even really know what pilates is...but it always sounds impressive.

I still can't get my head around the fact that Loz is 28. To me she still seems like that wide eyed innocent 17 year old who I used to watch play for the AIS last century. Really looking forward to seeing her suit up for the Caps soon.

So pleased to see Abby Bishop back amongst it this weekend. She is just adorable is Abb. She's been on the sidelines after some off season shoulder surgery. She's a two time MVP and she's generally a breath of fresh air on and off the court. She'll make an instant impact on that Capitals line up. The rest of the league must be watching with dismay at the Capitals juggernaut as we make the approach to the finals next year. Bring it on.

Tony Abbott

I didn't think that the Liberal party would be brave enough to install Tony Abbott as leader yesterday. Granted that it was by the smallest possible margin, but he's there now. Now get ready for the ride. Federal politics is about to get shaken up by the mad monk and I'm looking forward to it.

The Federal Liberal party needs a strong leader. They need to redefine their shape and direction and Tony Abbott is the man to do it. There was no point to the Liberal party just being a poor mans Labor party. When both major parties occupy a place close to the centre it doesn't benefit anyone. Well...it does benefit someone, and that is whichever party is in Government.

Those in the party and it's followers still have an enormous respect for Malcolm Turnbull. He chose an approach to leading the Libs and he stuck to it. He has departed with dignity and I don't think he's lost many fans in the process. My biggest criticism is that he seemed to run the Liberal party like a CEO would run a major company. Liberal MPs were seemingly treated like employees and Liberal voters like customers. Much of what he did was based on securing the biggest market share for his product. Now on the face of it that sounds like wonderful political logic, but I think that on the subject of the Emissions Trading Scheme, populism was not the right horse to back.

What we're in for now is a clearly defined political debate based around alternative views. And we're going to see that there's more to Tony Abbott than meets the eye.

Can he become a more palatable to those in the centre while remaining true to the right. Time will tell.

2CC Summer Barbie Competition.

I was doing some Marlin steaks on the BBQ on the weekend. Beer in hand. We had Dazza over. Nothing like summer in the Capital. And then the gas ran out. Don't you hate that ? When was the last time that happened to you ? It actually happened to me on Christmas day one year. I whipped across next door and borrowed Lou's gas bottle. She was away down at the coast, but I knew she would understand the enormity of the situation.

I love my BBQ. I've had this one for a few years.

How's the Barbie looking at your place ?

If it's a shocker, then you really should get online today to the 2CC website.... www.2cc.net.au Right on the front page you'll see the link to our summer barbie competition. All you have to do is fill your details in and you're in the draw to win a 5 burner Beefeater Gas BBQ from the Burning Log Megastore as well as some other goodies from Lachlan Valley Meats.

Get in today because the draw is on Friday.

Hot...and cold.

I promised Vanessa that I wouldn't pay her out if she put the heater on last night. She suggested that she wouldn't but I awoke this morning to the sound of the central heating. My wife is still re-aclimatising to Australia after a year in the Solomons and it is a bit weird launching into Summer with 6 degrees overnight. Doesn't really feel like Summer this morning.

Having said that, we've just capped off the warmest November on record in the capital. We had an average maximum of 29 degrees. It is a full degree warmer than the previous warmest November which was back in 1982. We had 17 days of 30 degrees or over which is unprecedented.

I still remember when we first got to Canberra 11 years ago. We had a place at Fraser with a swimming pool. We didn't look like getting in for a swim till January. It just wasn't warm enough.

The global warmists among us are getting a bit excited about the figures. I guess they should remember that October was quite cool. In fact my memory of October is that it was bitterly cold even for Spring in Canberra. In October we got snow at Williamsdale and the Namadgi National Park.

It's all about swings and roundabouts.

Hospital parking

How long is it since you've tried to get a park at Canberra Hospital. It can be tough. It's about to get tougher. They've closed the big car park at the Hospital for redevelopment. The good news is that they'll eventually have an 1800 space car park there to service us at the Hospital. The bad news is, it's going to take a year to get there.

Action Buses have also been effected by this one. They've had to change their routes to and around the hospital.

I fear a shambles coming on.

There will be temporary parking set up across Yamba Drive and I know that some staff are being directed to park at CIT. But the long and short of it will be that there will not be enough parks at Canberra Hospital. If you've got something on at the Hospital in the next 12 months...leave early cos parking could take you enternity. You have have to park at Tharwa and walk

Is it about leadership or policy ?

As we hurtle towards the Liberal leadership showdown, 2CC listeners have been voting on who should lead the party at our website www.2cc.net.au . If our listeners were deciding on this then Joe Hockey would be installed as leader in a heartbeat He's leading our poll decisively over Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey. What people don't seem to understand is that if Joe Hockey emerges this morning as leader then nothing has really changed. The ETS will be passed and the party will roll along in this grey zone of centre right politics so close to the ALP that on most days you can't actually tell the difference between the two parties.

The likes of Nick Minchin and Tony Abbott have gone out of their way to say that this is not about leadership, it's about policy. If it's about policy then there can be only leadership option today and that's Tony Abbott.