With all the excitement of Tasmania’s constitutional mini-crisis and the Greens celebrating their 20% share of the vote, the apparent shift to the Left has been tempered by the election of two quite conservative Liberal members. In Bass, former Federal MHA Michael Ferguson has a strong reputation for “family values”, while in Franklin, Jacquie Petrusma ran for Family First as a Senate Candidate in the last federal election.

Which Labor pre-selection candidate for Canberra has been living large off Labor largesse with close to three-quarters of a million dollars worth of work from the federal government since the 2007 election?

Regarding the tip about the teacher on half the contract hours with more work: this is happening in universities, too. Now, at least half (and possibly more) of the teaching staff are on casual hourly rates or short-term contracts (as little as three months at a time). Last semester on a full-time short-term contract, I conducted two lectures and four tutorials at two campuses; this semester I have three lectures and eight tutorials at three campuses on the same sort of contract. They have also cut back the number of weeks I am paid by about six.

Universities are greatly suffering with 50% of the staff treated as second-class citizens. No one has reported on this at length and, from the inside, I think it is one of the major problems with universities in Australia today. A lot of the country’s top brain power is being wasted, because they are on casual contracts and have to spend all their “spare” time chasing the next job (or worrying about it).

Plus, you are typically employed to teach a particular unit while the regular lecturer is unavailable. Next semester, you’re teaching something different. This means your preparation materials from last semester can’t be re-used at all and you have to start all over. Finding a job is like winning a lottery — almost impossible.

More on your Health Services Union story. Not only were the members of the Victoria #1 and #3 branches kept in the dark about the amalgamation with the NSW and Queensland branches, the National Councillors who were summoned last Tuesday were also steamrolled. The proposed rule change was sent out to councillors in advance of the meeting in accordance with the rules.

However a revised document with substantial changes was distributed half an hour before the meeting. The detail and complexity of the document meant it was impossible to absorb the changes in this time. Michael Williamson was asked to go through all changes and explain them one at a time — a request which he ignored.

The vote was bulldozed through even though most members of Council didn’t know what they were voting for.

Is there blood at 60 Minutes? Reports that long-time senior producer (supervising I think) Richard Andrews has been rather messily replaced by former producer, Alexandra Hodgkinson. She’s a known favourite of former program EP, John Westacott, who is now a consultant to the program.

Some interesting context for Fairfax’s Melbourne Weekly v real estate agents stoush: a similar situation nearly occurred in Canberra a couple of years ago. A number of the larger local agents explored the option of setting up their own publication to compete with the Fairfax-owned Canberra Times — although in this case it was primarily a negotiating position to lower advertising rates. Still, Fairfax should have taken notice that hell hath no fury like a real estate agent over-charged.

Your tip from Thursday on Christine Nixon is absurd. Bruce Guthrie’s suit alleges Nixon went to her close friend Janet Calvert-Jones to have him sacked because of the grief his paper had given Nixon over the stories she told about that free Qantas jaunt to LA. Far from hurting Guthrie, the assault on Nixon’s credibility and competence helps Guthrie’s cause immensely. The astonishing thing is that the Herald Sun has waded into Nixon. Further proof that Guthrie’s replacement ain’t too bright.