It’s nice to see a pundit like Glen Milne admit to a bit of gossiping. His regular piece in Monday’s Australian closed with this mea culpa:

In last week’s column I referred to cabinet-level gossip
and rumour mills suggesting John Howard’s chief of staff Arthur
Sinodinos had wanted to become head of the Department of Prime Minister
and Cabinet after the last election and that the PM’s senior political
adviser, Tony Nutt, was interested in becoming ambassador to
Washington. The column noted: “True or false [it] demonstrates that the
future of the Prime Minister’s office is a live issue.” Sinodinos and
Nutt have contacted me and want it known they reject these suggestions
as completely false. The rumour mills, meanwhile, continue to grind on.

So no doubt he also keeps on hearing reports that Washington would like
to see Sinodinos’ and Nutt’s boss, John Howard, as UN Secretary
General. Just like us irresponsible gossips.