The tsunami has swept all before it in this week’s Rehame Top 40, as Christian Kerr explains.

What do you prefer? Riders on the Storm or Kill Surf City? Forget the Triple J Hot 100. The Canberra Top 40 is back, thanks to our friends at Rehame.

What’s hot? John Howard and Alexander Downer are riding a wave of publicity and have crested the charts this week. Justice Minister Chris Ellison has surfed into the Top 10 in their wake.

There’s a trio of new – newish – Labor talent in there, too. Kevin Rudd, Chris Evans and Jenny Macklin have all made the Top 10. If the ALP decides the best way it can return to government is to let the punters chose leaders Australian Idol style, it looks as if Kruddy’s got the job.

Amanda Vanstone’s way up there, too, at Number 5. She’s done a controversial cover of Frank Zappa’s The Torture Never Stops, dedicated to all the Christian asylum seekers she shipped back to the mad mullahs in Iran last week.

But this week’s success story is Downer’s Parliamentary Secretary, Bruce Bilson. Talk about an understudy’s dream. In at Number 4. Break a leg, Bruce! (Not in a tsunami, we hasten to add.)

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

Rank Name Mentions last Week
1 John Howard 4791
2 Alexander Downer 3465
3 Mark Latham 897
4 Bruce Billson 683
5 Amanda Vanstone 525
6 Chris Ellison 343
7 Kevin Rudd 336
8 Chris Evans 286
9 Jenny Macklin 224
10 Philip Ruddock 208
11 Robert Hill 127
12 Warren Truss 116
13 Peter Costello 100
14 Kim Beazley 85
15 Ian Campbell 80
16 Sharman Stone 78
17 Bob Brown 73
18 John Anderson 66
19 Mark Vaile 65
20 Lyn Allison 58
21 De Anne Kelly 48
22 Brendan Nelson 45
23 Peter Lindsay 40
24 Tony Abbott 38
25 Fran Bailey 30
26 Andrew Bartlett 28
27 Gary Hardgrave 27
27 Nick Minchin 27
27 Robert McClelland 27
30 Joseph Hockey 26
31 Kay Patterson 24
31 Tony Windsor 24
33 Robert Ray 22
34 Justine Elliot 21
35 Jim Lloyd 19
35 Martin Ferguson 19
37 Anthony Albanese 18
37 Kevin Andrews 18
39 Malcolm Turnbull 16
40 Sussan Ley 15