Ashmore explosion sees Debus get the press

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Ashmore explosion sees Debus get the press

No change at the top, the diversionary mention of the previously dreaded “R” word for the first time not completely working for a PM who clearly does not want to be dragged into an asylum seeker debate, no matter how much opinion may have moved on since 2001.

Further down the list there’s plenty of movement, mainly owing to SIEV 36, Bob Debus, Chris Evans and Sharman Stone all making rare appearances, while Peter Dutton heads back to the office to put in some more practice on those piggy, er … pithy one-liners.

The South Australian Minister for defending the local auto industry by driving really fast in your V6 is astonishingly forced to step down from his Road Safety portfolio, despite his expert knowledge of the issues involved.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	*17,211*	1,000
2	0	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	409	654	645	303	*8,148*	503
3	0	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	399	294	593	229	*5,412*	378
4	32	Outer Min	Bob Debus	176	489	516	172	*5,645*	338
5	15	Premier	Colin Barnett	311	342	519	116	*4,469*	322
6	-1	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	261	243	247	278	*4,500*	257
7	26	Cabinet	Chris Evans	163	262	204	86	*2,813*	179
8	2	Premier	John Brumby	222	206	161	63	*2,242*	163
9	7	Minor Party	Steve Fielding	133	144	298	65	*2,237*	160
10	-1	Premier	Anna Bligh	264	132	140	101	*2,123*	159
11	-4	Premier	Nathan Rees	161	123	52	274	*3,200*	153
12	-8	Cabinet	Stephen Smith	95	165	41	282	*3,425*	146
13	12	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	161	120	137	92	*1,910*	128
14	-2	Shadow	Julie Bishop	58	153	158	81	*1,985*	112
15	12	Shadow	Penny Wong	102	129	94	118	*2,017*	111
16	31	Cabinet	Sharman Stone	99	199	86	53	*1,829*	109
17	-3	Cabinet	Nicola Roxon	132	93	131	80	*1,623*	109
18	34	Shadow	Peter Dutton	95	75	171	22	*1,126*	91
19	18	State Minister	Tom Koutsantonis	87	169	41	19	*1,254*	79
20	8	Shadow	Joe Hockey	41	46	100	62	*1,073*	62

Everybody loves a hoon.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	410
2	Tom Koutsantonis	236
3	Chris Evans	107
4	Julia Gillard	99
5	Colin Barnett	59

Our celebrity selector Neil Walker’s last pick (or should that be Pict?) is fellow Scot Susan Boyle. Is it only me that finds it appalling that the world is so shocked and delighted that someone not so pretty can have a beautiful voice?

Meanwhile — we’ll miss you Iceman, and may all your troubles be little ones.