Canberra Top 40: Payola rolls on

Can payola allegations overshadow Labor’s woes?

Parliament’s back next
week, and a glimpse at the Rehame Canberra Top 40 suggests that the New
England payola scandal just won’t go away.

The leader of the party at the centre of the allegations, John
Anderson, has toppled John Howard as the most mentioned pol. The
Top 10 is dominated by payola players – Tony Windsor make it in at
Number Three and that thick thug, Sandy Macdonald, somehow turns up at
Number Three.

Bad news for the Government? Well, it could be – if Labor could
get its act together. But rather than singing the same tune, they
sound like Slayer sampling Schoenburg.

Golden oldie Kim Beazley reappears in the Top 10 this week, at Number
Eight, reflecting the leadership speculation in the ALP. Loud
Labor hacks like Carmen Lawrence and Kerry O’Brien and Anthony Albanese
and Dick Adams have charted so strongly that the Government heavies
that usually dominate the Canberra Top 40 – the Tony Abbotts and Robert
Hills and Brendan Nelsons – have been knocked right out of the top half
of this week’s list.

And, moving away from the Top 40 names, have a look at what’s dominating Rehame’s charts that list the talkback topics:

• ALP Leadership Speculation –John Howard’s was discussed in relation to discussion of the ALP Leadership
• ALP Leadership Speculation – Callers debated the merits of Mark Latham as leader of the Federal ALP
• Federal Opposition, Election Campaign –
  Callers discussed the various strategies of the Federal Opposition
  during the recent election campaign.
• Speaker of the House – Callers speculated
  as to whether Mark Latham could be trusted to get along with the new
  Speaker in the House of Representatives.

Twenty years ago Frankie
Goes to Hollywood were a chart act. They generated lots of noise
and lots of controversy, more noise and more controversy and scored two
hits – but that was it. Nowadays, we remember them with
embarrassment – embarrassment at their antics and embarrassment that we
were actually naïve enough to fall for anything so naff, not matter how
briefly.

Twenty years from now, when you hear the words “Mark Latham”, two thoughts will probably pop in your mind.

First, you’ll think “When
two tribes go to war, one is all you can score”. Then you’ll
think “Relax”. Then you’ll probably laugh at the idiocy of it all.

>Who’s hot, who’s not: The Rehame Top 40 Pols