Dick Pratt’s net worth appears to increase by approximately $200 million every year, or $10 for every Australian. Surely a class action by the whole population is the way to recover all of his ill-gotten gains. And why have they not taken away all his honours as they did with that former Queensland Police Commissioner?

A friend (a junior Army officer) has told me that his unit has been hit by rocket attacks twice this week. The closest rocket came within 50 metres of their position. No sign of this piece of news in the media. Is the Government or Army brass keeping these attacks quiet in the run up to the election?

I was in Bennelong this morning and was told by a local resident that the Howard government has paid for a $7,000 cricket bowling machine for the local cricket club. Now that is a real good use of taxpayer money for a cricket tragic.

Next G Coverage. The Northern Australia task force recently got a taste of what regional Australia has been complaining about, the poor coverage of Telstra’s next G network. As taskforce members shuffled off a charter flight in Georgetown in the Far North Queensland, members eagerly switched on mobile phones and blackberries only to be told by a local bus driver to make the most of the coverage as it would not last long. As they left the township and headed for the first farm on their itinerary, coverage was lost within minutes and did not return until they arrived back at the airport. Much to the dismay of some in the traveling party.

Seems the RAAF retired its F111 G models a couple of weeks ago without a murmur in the media, that I detected… Still flying the C Model I believe. Obviously those hordes to the north can’t be such a threat these days.

Today the PM re-announced the selection of Tenix to build the Navy’s two amphibious “Canberra” Class warships. But that decision was made and announced three months ago. So why announce again? Was it pork? Maybe. There was a small mention of some of the electronics work being allocated to Adelaide, where the Government is bleeding badly. But you’d be happy if your name was Salteri. Tenix has just been put on the market.

Margaret Simons’ story about the ABC and the Children’s Channel. It cuts to the heart of what will turn out to be the driver for the children’s channel – will the temptation to make and broadcast content to sell merchandise and DVDs prevail over the noble aims expressed in the submission? The big key in the pitch to pollies is the Australian content for Australian kids. It’s an obvious feelgood factor for any politician to embrace. What then are the pollies and the taxpayer to make of the latest move by ABC Commercial (ABC Enterprises) into children’s television production. They are heavily committing funds to a production that is produced and owned by a New Zealand producer and co-funded by Hasbro, the multi-national toy company. So much for Australian content. So much for quality drama. So much for the ABC supporting the Australian production community.