Jobs to go at Optus. Optus staff are preparing for redundancies to be announced today. At least five from consumer marketing, we hear, and more from other areas.

Which bank is under pressure? The Commonwealth Bank is offering more redundancies in its institutional banking & markets division, we hear. With foreign exchange sales apparently underperforming and promised revenue streams not delivering the project is over budget and under delivering. A “large number” of compliance and risk staff have been let go; “there are now almost as many IT staff on the trading floor as actual dealers” our insider says.

Newman runs locally for votes. Is Queensland’s opposition leader-in-exile Campbell Newman being chauffeur-driven to the Ashgrove electorate so he can be seen jogging around the area by early-rising voters? Newman is hoping to win the seat for the LNP and become premier at the next Queensland election but lives well outside Ashgrove’s boundaries.

Pay spat at Mildura paper group. Staff say management at Elliott Newspaper Group in Mildura (owner of the Sunraysia Daily, Mildura Midweek and The Guardian) have been dragging their feet for more than a year about a new workplace agreement to increase pay by more than 0.1% above inflation — they offered 3% every year for three years. According to our mole: “The union and staff have moved closer to what the employer wants but they have not moved at all, including to allow paid overtime instead of time off in lieu. A vote on an agreement put to the staff by general manager Glenn Robinson was voted down 1-15.” We asked the general manager for comment but he’s yet to get back.

The numbers on terrorism. A keen-eyed Crikey reader pointed us to this Europol report on terrorist attacks in 2010: of the 249 attacks …

“Islamist terrorists carried out three attacks on EU territory. Separatist groups, on the other hand, were responsible for 160 attacks, while left-wing and anarchist groups were responsible for 45 attacks. One single-issue attack was reported from Greece.”

Food for thought, perhaps, for those quick to judge …