Summer job: An amusing yarn in the Adelaide Advertiser. The South Australian Parliament is taking a four month summer break, so the Tiser has suggested ministers might like to take up another job to fill in the time. It says Premier Mike Rann could become an ABC summer presenter: “The former BBC journalist could put his manicured vocal chords to good use and give friends and ABC talkback host Matthew Abraham a sum-m-er hol-i-day.” Others would argue that Rann – or his media unit – are already the show’s defacto producers.

Oh, the Cheek: Thanks to Bob Cheek’s book, it is now public knowledge that his successor as leader of the Tasmanian Liberals, Rene Hidding, was once a failed used car salesman and bankrupt. Great ammunition for Labor, but how do they make mileage out of it without it looking like a cheap shot? Check out this press release from Premier Paul Lennon. Nothing remarkable in the spray he gives Hidding until you get to the last par: “It is clear the Liberals would bankrupt Tasmania given half a chance.” That’s no accidental reference.

I PR things, sweetie: Sourcewatch has been assembling some Australian content, looking at the revolving door between politics and PR. There’s plenty of interest to Crikey readers – and plenty to come – here.

Nimbies –or nastier:Paddy McGuinness had a good spray at the nimbies of Pittwater and their influence on last weekend’s by-election outcome in the Oz yesterday, but was there something else involved? There’s one story no-one seems prepared to report which goes something like this: some northern beaches types had reservations voting for Liberal Paul Nicolau not just because he wasn’t one of them – but because he had a woggy name. Charmers.

You can’t believe your eyes: Has the Sydney Morning Herald moved on from the old “choose the worst picture” trick to playing with Photoshop? This shot of Danielle Spencer as a disembodied, floating head is probably an unfortunate case of black on black, but what about the shot of NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos? OK, so he probably felt a little green, given what he had to explain, but either that’s a shocking photo – or retouched.