Christian Kerr writes:

Brogden’s buddies. “Former State
Liberal leader John Brogden has ruled out standing in his old seat of Pittwater
in next year’s election – but he may run in 2011,” The Daily Telegraph reports today.
Brogden, of course, shares his deepest, innermost thoughts with his great
personal friends at the Tele…

Talking
rubbish. Accounts of the most shameless Clean Up Australia Day media stunts
trickle into Crikey. Malcolm Turnbull in a kayak isn’t bad, but Morris Iemma’s
garbo gear should be junked. Who on earth wears clean blue jeans and a nice
pressed shirt if they are serious about cleaning rubbish?

Tax talk.
An insightful and intelligent
intervention in the tax debate by The Age‘s Tim Colebatch today.
“What we need is not just a quick inquiry by a couple of mates, but a searching
review using the best tax experts… to come up with a reform package that makes
the tax system fairer, simpler, more efficient, and more supportive of
long-term growth. This was the key recommendation of the very interesting
discussion paper issued recently by the Business Coalition for Tax Reform… John
Howard and Costello should commission such a review… Tax reform is not
something that can be avoided: we need to do it, but we need to do it well. In
the meantime, the Government should hang on to that budget surplus… it will
need that surplus to minimise the political costs when it comes up with real
reforms.”

Poetry corner. Democrat candidate for Don Dunstan’s old seat of Norwood David
Winderlich comments:

Don’s party just joined God’s police.

With God’s help the voters they’ll fleece

Both call it a smear

But Labour is clear…

“Our soul’s not for sale – but we’ll lease!”


Recipe of the Day. It was only a matter of time before we put a bit of humble pie
on the menu. Actually today’s pies aren’t so humble, especially the
intriguing Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cream Pie, but there’s no
surprise as to who’s eating them. Yessum, the Bomber is sure in one hot kimchi pickle. Meanwhile, with all the egg on his
face, Beazley could whip up a delightful truffle frittata.

Send your snippets to christian@crikey.com.au