Aunty's The Insiders on Sunday featured an interview with Coalition Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson.
Nelson as usual was all about the big picture and vital national issues.
That is if you delved deep enough under the half-truths and fairy floss.
It seems Little Brennie just knows that all's well with The Alliance even if Queenslanders are about to declare war on Texas, it's really O.K. for a prime minister to travel overseas if he has Liberal Party permission, an Opposition Leader will miraculously regain relevance by going walkabout or pretending to work at Coles, voters will believe this leader is genuine if he doesn't make a fuss about political donation rules, and whatever whoppers he tells will go down easily if he repeats them often enough.
Yeah mate - and the crows will fly backwards to Bourke on the day you show some political nous.
Here are the trite bits I liked the best.
"And I think what we've seen from President Bush and Kevin Rudd is a reassurance I think to Australians and the rest of the world that the alliance is strong, that the fundamentals of that alliance will continue, and at a personal level it would appear at least outwardly that Kevin Rudd and George Bush have hit it off, and that's in Australia's interest, and I think no one should be critical of that.
Although, I do sympathise with the Queenslanders who are a bit cranky about the idea of Mr Rudd conferring honorary Queensland membership to the President, but they'll debate that in Queensland."
"Well look the first thing Barrie is I think it is important that the Prime Minister, and a new Prime Minister, actually travel, we've got no problems with that at all."
"Yeah, a lot of it will. Obviously we've got some structure, in terms of places that we are going to, and functions that I will be attending and addressing, but you'll see me in servos and bagging groceries in supermarkets, and all of those sort of things that just, you know, connections with people in day-to-day life."
"but I don't think the average Australian wants to get too hung up in us spending too much time on issue [political donations]."
"You see you have got to remember, Barrie, we're the real deal."
"Again, I go back to our Liberal roots. We are men and women committed to building a better society based on small business, families, reward for hard work and sacrifice in every day life, and one of the key things for us is we need to broaden our base, we need to be a party that's attractive and resonates with every Australian, does matter where they live or whatever their circumstances, and when I'm sticking the groceries in the bags at Woollies and Coles, mate, that's what I'll be talking about."
The Northern Rivers Echo, in conjunction with the Byron Bay Writers Festival, has launched a competition recognising new writers by creating a short story competition of 1000 words with the winner receiving $500.
