ALP member tapped on shoulder? From the 3AW Rumour File: “Shifting of the Deck Chairs says a sitting ALP member with a safe seat has been told his time is up. Next door a marginal member has been told he will be getting the seat.” Who might that be?

Stress training for public service cuts. While the Victorian government slashes public service jobs, staff who remain are expected to pick up extra work and watch as other work goes to over-priced consultants — almost invariably ex-government employees. That’s the assessment from one Spring Street mole, who says morale is low. Thankfully there’s “resilience training” for staff to help them cope with the stress.

“While staff watch colleagues (but never managers) lose their income, are told there is no funding for anything, are pressured to work long hours, just to add insult to injury they are forced to take time away from their work to sit through some over-priced pop psychology consultant tell them how to suck eggs,” the exasperated government employee writes. “Yes, that will definitely affect morale. Just not in the way management hopes.”

Follow the money at Sydney Uni. University of Sydney students are closely watching how the Student Amenities Fee funding pool is being cut. According to one campus insider:

“The University of Sydney has given the big thumbs down to the student representative organisations — the Student Representative Council and the Postgraduate Representative Association — and the big thumbs up to the Student Union (which does no direct student support or advocacy work) and the Sports Union. That means that students, having never been consulted about any of this and contrary to university claims they have, will miss out on much-needed support and advocacy while subsidising the politically neutered Student Union and the tres elite Sports Union. Who ever said that the Student Amenities Fee was about providing ‘essential’ student support services?”

ABC TV boss protects image on Wikipedia. Critics of ABC TV head Kim Dalton have taken to his Wikipedia page to vent their spleen on production outsourcing. Dalton’s to-date unresolved complaint, detailing the posted comments and correspondence, is on Wikipedia’s noticeboard. Dalton writes:

“This article is autobiographical. As someone who holds a reasonably high profile position in the Australian media I feel it is reasonable to post a short biography on Wikipedia. The short synopsis of my career I feel is not particularly self promoting and it does not comment on or advocate in regard to areas of my work and actions I have taken which may be contested. Unfortunately an anonymous person posting under the name duckquackquackquack keeps inserting material relating to a particular debate around the issue of outsourcing ABC production. I have no problem if this person wishes to set up their own page to advocate their position. However, I think it is unreasonable that they advocate their position anonymously and effectively mount a criticism of me. I would appreciate it if you were able to take some action on this matter.”