Springborg wants the LNP leadership back. Lawrence Springborg is ramping up his campaign to topple flailing Queensland opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek and regain the job for the fourth time since 2003. It’s believed shadow treasurer Tim Nicholls has again failed to secure the numbers to launch a challenge, with Springborg expected to make his move within weeks.

Langbroek has barely had an outing in public since December while Springborg’s media appearances are on the up. He blitzed Brisbane media with an attack on Anna Bligh for a recent Women’s Weekly photo shoot. Ironically, one of the Borg’s most parodied stunts involved a now-infamous photo of him ironing a shirt half-naked during the 2004 state campaign.

Morrison used Gaddafi on immigration. While there are far higher profile people than Scott Morrison currently wishing they hadn’t been quite so positive about the regime of homicidal lunatic Muammar Gaddafi — Tony Blair is currently batting two out of three in his enthusiastic support of Hosni Mubarak and Gaddafi — Morrison may have some regrets about praising the relationship between Italy and Libya in March last year for its impact on asylum seekers. He enthused on 2GB:

“In Italy where Berlusconi has done a deal with the Libyans, I wouldn’t draw too many parallels there, but they have basically taken a situation where they have reduced their arrivals by 90%. And Libya is in a similar situation to Indonesia where the African asylum seekers come up through Africa and get in contact with people smugglers in Libya and head across first to Italy as a way to get to Europe.”

Morrison failed to note that the vast majority of Italy’s “arrivals” are from Eastern Europe rather than Africa, and neglected to detail some of the methods used by Gaddafi’s regime against would-be “arrivals”. According to eyewitness accounts compiled by Human Rights Watch, those methods included shooting, beating and torturing people. I wouldn’t draw too many parallels there either, Scott.

Elton never said we had to laugh. I was in the audience of Ben Elton’s last show and I must say the jokes got a decent laugh from the studio audience while I was there. The Julia Gillard sketch was funny. The only sketch that did not go down well was the hovercraft stuffy middle- class parent (I found it funny) and the Idol singer gag that was crass. (No one laughed at all in the studio.) Maybe it’s too high-brow for some and Elton said to the audience you don’t have to laugh if you don’t want to. He seems like a smart, down-to-earth guy and maybe it didn’t  resonate well to television, but when you watch it live it’s like a great comedy gig. Television has become so ruthless and market driven — shame!