Strong rumours coming out of Tassie talk about a local Liberal leadership spill – a complete top level cleanout apparently.

Caroline Overington had a self serving defensive piece about the Wentworth emails on-line at 9am this morning, at 9.28am it has vanished.

I can’t believe all the rubbish that has been peddled about the candidates in Wentworth and the so-called breakup between George Newhouse and Danielle Ecuyer. They were having a lovely and seemingly intimate brunch together in leafy Rose Bay on no less than Saturday 6 October just days before the election was called. For political expediency it makes a lovely story for the good looking blonde to conveniently break-up with the Labor candidate whilst directing him preferences in a tight race and guaranteeing a no-name Labor candidate with maximum publicity against someone as high profile has Malcolm Turnbull. For the record, no one in the millionaire row of Rose Bay seemed to recognise or care about Newhouse as he kept looking around to see if anyone noticed him. What more could you expect from such a Liberal stronghold where people care more about summer in Tuscany than a pulp mill in Tasmania? The media keep on running this ‘s-xy’ story as it’s been such a boring campaign but the truth has been pulped! Don’t anyone be fooled or surprised post 24 November when the happy couple re-unite.

Laura Chipp, daughter of Don Chipp and Democrats candidate of Isaacs recently approached the Labor candidate, Mark Dreyfus on the campaign trail. Mr Dreyfus must have been more interested in talking rather than listening that day, he is after all a QC. After introducing herself Laura had to explain that she was representing the Democrats and contesting the same seat as Mr Dreyfus. When asked why she was representing the Democrats, Laura explained that she was the daughter of Don Chipp … It seems that this wasn’t enough information for Mr Dreyfus, as he proceeded to ask Laura what her father did…

Yesterday, while I sat at a cafe in Brisbane’s inner-northern suburb of Kelvin Grove, a mobile billboard (pulled by a motorbike) drove passed at least four times in the space of just 30 minutes. Nothing too strange there – as the cafe sits within the QUT campus there, it’s obviously a good way for advertisers to get their message out to the “Facebook generation”. Unexpectedly, however, the billboard was advertising Andrew Bartlett’s Senate re-election campaign. As I sipped my coffee, I wondered whether the Australian Democrats’ deputy-leader was aware that this advertising technique was part of the campaign strategy, and whether he had any plans to offset the carbon emissions being produced in the process…

You suggest that Howard throwing money at Indonesian orangutans may have delivered the comical low point of this campaign. But don’t count out the Democrats, the party which organised for Andrew Bartlett to be thrown from a plane. Lyn Allison has now appeared on YouTube with a giant koala… a scary looking giant koala. It has a freaky smirk — could that be Peter Costello inside?

This morning on AM Howard said that “the reality is that 95-98% of kids attend independent schools.” Really? No wonder government schools are being neglected.

The Kovko case. I note the promotion of the General for her meritorious work performance. One feels very secure with our national defence in such good hands. Surely the DFAT officer who mixed up the bodies in Kuwait must be overdue for elevation. The same man (Alastair Adams) was involved in Islamabad in a fellow citizen’s rendition to Egypt, later Guantanamo. Surely overdue for an ambassadorship – in Ulan Bator perhaps?

Destra to buy Vizard’s troubled production company Cornerbox.

ASX today lodges change in Substantial Shareholding notice re their holding in IRE very late. Somewhat understandable given as result of dilution from DRP but aren’t they meant to oversee this type of thing in the marketplace? Or is that ASIC?

Re. ABC Learning – The company is commencing an implementation of Peoplesoft/Oracle integrated business systems with a very ambitious project timeline with a demand for specialised staff which industry insiders think is close to laughable. These implementations can go very bad – ask DFAT, NAB, RMIT.

I saw Crikey’s mention the other day in “Tips and rumours” of SEEK partnering with Facebook, well it looks like you were right. But looking into the group I’d say it’s not a move to counter Careerone’s partnership with MySpace due to the demographic difference between the two sites (i.e. MySpace is not a jobseeking audience but more of a teen audience – as per their own admissions) I’d take a guess that it’s because Facebook is a bloody big site and getting bigger!

Regarding previous articles on fatigued Air Traffic Controllers and single-person night shifts, their union Civil Air has directed its members not to hand-over their position to unqualified controllers (or cleaners?) in accordance with Civil Aviation Regulations, in defiance of management instruction. Current staff shortages will now result in controlled airspace closures, where aircraft will fly blind in a “free-for-all” – but still pay the government for this privilege! Expect the spin department to trot out the “perfectly safe contingency pilot procedures” line.