Mia Freedman dishes the dirty on her recent interview with Julia Gillard, from battling turbulence — and her own flying phobia — in the PM’s plane to whether it’s OK to ask Gillard about botox.
August, 2010
CLP sticks by Leo Abbott despite DVO details
One thing for sure is that next time around, the CLP will be spending a lot more time vetting candidates, particularly those who wear big belt buckles and even bigger hats.
Warning! This article contains unsourced, unverified information from Wikipedia
Just what every discerning newspaper reader needs: hilarious warning stickers. They help distinguish between stories based on an unverified, anonymous tipoff and those written too close to deadline to check facts.
Film review: The Nothing Men – bleak and messy blue collar drama
Obviously inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s one setting(ish) masterpiece Reservoir Dogs, writer/director Mark Fitzpatrick’s feature film debut about a bunch of angry hard yakka Aussie blokes boasts good performances but a bogus ending, writes Luke Buckmaster.
Kohler: CEO’s like the cut of Abbott’s jib
The latest Newspoll suggests Australian CEOs favour Tony Abbott over Julia Gillard any day of the week. Gillard’s IR rhetoric and talk of “little Australia” has made the bosses turn against her in their droves, says Alan Kohler.
The PM and telemedicine: why has it taken so long?
Many will view the PM’s recent announcement that Medicare will pay for telemedicine consultations for people in rural and remote areas as good news. Others might wonder why the health system has been so slow to respond.
North Korea joins the Twitters
An official North Korean government Twitter profile has been created, called @uriminzok, meaning “Our Nation”. But don’t expect insider dirt on life in Pyongyang, so far it’s just links to government documents.
Old timers get hip with the iPad
The uncomplicated design and apes-could-use-it simplicity of the iPad make it a viable choice for people who were alive when gramophones were all the rage. Anecdotal evidence suggests senior citizens around the world are gravitating towards Apple - creating a new, somewhat old group of consumers.
US financial recovery: viva la revolution!
Smashed by a seemingly endless wave of GFC-related woes, the clock is ticking for the US economy to get back on track. It needs nothing short of a revolution to survive - a revolution that could save billions by ending unnecessary wars, writes Paul Craig Roberts. Viva la revolution!
Should Catholic priests ditch the celibacy rule?
Over 1,000 children in the UK alone are estimated to have been fathered by Catholic priests. One of them explains what was like growing up with his father’s identity kept secret.
The world’s first anti-gay pill?
Election Tracker: Day 30
Election Tracker Day 30: with five days to go, Labor officially launched its campaign in front of the party faithful. Late yesterday evening Abbott faced an hour of questions - and a Kevin Rudd impersonator - on ABC’s Q&A.
The front pages: flood of coverage for Labor’s launch … and the s-xy granny drought
How some of the nation’s newspapers are leading this morning.
Crikey Says: Campaign Crikey morning edition: Day 31
“Jesus didn’t say yes to everyone, Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it is not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.”
At least Abbott’s honest about willful refusal to buy into global warming
The party rhetoric on climate change hides a bipartisan policy of protecting the economic interests of polluters, which is why climate change has been almost entirely absent from the major parties’ campaigns.
Economic debate could get Abbott over the line
Daily Media Wrap: Yesterday opened with a bang of campaign launch and ended with the whimpered promise of an election debate.
Pakistan Opposition Leader rebukes call for aid
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for urgent international assistance for flood-stricken Pakistan, but Opposition Leader Nawaz Sharif has boldly reacted by claiming Pakistan does not need aid from the west.
Sott Despoja: Latham’s lunacy gets my goat
While it’s true that the two major parties have offered myopic and spirit-less leadership this election, that is no reason to follow Mark Latham’s lunatic advice to submit an informal vote. People should be encouraged to get more involved, not less, writes Natasha Stott Despoja.
Yes We Can’t Think of Our Own Lines
At the ALP campaign launch yesterday Julia Gillard took took a leaf out of Obama’s book and offered her own spin - “yes we will” - on his most famous catch cry. Insofar as inspirational mantras go, Geoff Elliott reckons it’s not half bad - in fact he likes it more than the original.
The NT’s Country Liberal Party: the “fair-go” party for domestic violence
Last Friday Crikey’s favourite tabloid, the NT News published this piece by Nigel Adlam on Leo Abbott, the Country Liberal Party, disclosing that Abbott had been charged with 22 breaches of a Domestic Violence Order.
Gillard finds a smidge of vision
Labor’s launch was a flat, uninspiring affair — but at last Julia Gillard produced something faintly visionary on e-health.
Forget CEO pay, investment banks laughing all the way to the bank
During the Global Financial Crisis, when Australian companies clamored to raise precious capital to shore-up their balance sheets, investment bankers and their favoured institutional clients made out like bandits.
Brighter House of Representatives prospects for Greens
There’s perhaps one finding we can take from the recent opinion polls — the Greens appear to be doing substantially better on this occasion than in the lead up to any past federal election.
Future Fund should have been pressing Telstra to deal
The June 30 update from the Future Fund is not due until early next month, but its view on the value of its remaining Telstra holding will tell us a lot about the intellectual fortitude of the fund and its guardians.
