(no subject)

John Winston Howard just called the Australian Federal Election for the 9th October. Now the politicians can stop working so hard for the Australian people and begin campaigning . . .

Howard tells us that this will be an election fought on trust. Probably a bad term of phrase from a man who, in the last few weeks, has been called a liar more times than anyone can actually count.

There is a few counts you should keep while an election is on. Like how many times you can campaign in the marginal seats of south-east Queensland, how much junk mail lands in my mailbox (tally it up and vote for the one with the least junk mail), and my personal favourite - the funny hat count.

Now to prepare my workshop.

GIP

Almost a GIP. I probably should explain it for those people who don't know about our Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer and his tastes in hosiery. But you can do your own research.

Also - The great political stunts list - just so everyone's up to date on the kind of stunts we get around here. My favourite?

Jenny Macklin - the Shadow Minister for Employment, Education and Training dispensed six figure invoices to government ministers for the retrospective cost of their (mostly free) degrees under the new fee system. System architect Brendan Nelson's own bill was the highest since as an economics drop-out he'd have to pay much more for spending too long at uni.