Penrith and Lindsay: Karyn Paluzzano looks set to face the Marie Ficarra protege and leader of right wing David Clarke faction in Penrith, councillor Ben Goldfinch at the state election. Although he is much less experienced and unlikely to defeat Paluzzano, Goldfinch with the support of Clarke and Ficarra should have the numbers to win a preselection contest against well known local and former newspaper editor Bernard Bratusa. David Bradbury is considering a move to the safe seat of Chifley to avoid a contest with current Liberal Senator Marise Payne, who, after conducting several fundraising events in 2009, has recently moved to the Lindsay.

NSW Police have banned access to Crikey from its computers. Bureaucrats, police officers and even the media unit are required to fill in a special “request” form for access — unhelpful with prominent stories running on the force’s cosy relationship to tabloid TV.

Terrific find by @Loquacities, providing an opportunity for some bemused self-deprecation down at Crikey … “Over the past few weeks the Canberra Times newspaper has taken to not running anything other than the first few paragraphs of a story on its website, then finishing off with a […]”

Re. soil carbon and biochar. You only have to look up biochar on the website of the Grains Research & Development Corporation (the authority on such exploratory research) to see that the jury will be out for a while on the benefits, i.e. the science has yet to be done, so it is at the end of the day yet another agripolitical stunt.