Picture: October 7, 2005.

- Overall observation: Coalition aggressively pushing 'the unions are behind Rudd' aspect very hard all week including tv adverts, just as ALP push 'Costello behind any vote for Howard'. Thus the two major parties are in a narrow tit for tat rhetorical dynamic arguably at the cost of much more important issues like lack of State Govt funded services, hopelessly unsustainable society.  

- Joe McDonald a unionist is ejected from the ALP for using fruity language and forgetting to tug his forelock to big business mates of the Labor Party, while Michael OConnor remains on the ALP national executive while effectively supporting this violence to conservationsists:

      

and this

      

      

all raising the question

 'Rudd has been to the funeral of a brave Australian solider complete with national media coverage, but has he ever been to the funeral of a building worker killed on the job?' [we bet Joe McDonald has many times]

- cover story by Paul Kelly  (contrary to take out of jaundiced Piers Akerman on Insiders) is flattering, insightful, blesses Rudd effectively but also notes he is "a work in progress" and we interpret this in the Bob Dylan sense 'always growing, evolving and arguably improving'. In this sense yes Rudd is dynamic, and a sensitive instrument. A thrill for those who believe in upskilling and a life of learning. How many Australians feel like Paul Kelly or this writer remains to be seen but the signs are encouraging too. 

- Michael Chaney banker and outgoing chair of the Business Council of Australia, now chair of Woodside is pro Kyoto. Mal Turnbull is. Costello is.

- 60 Minutes promo for tonight "proof" the planet is warming.

- Colonial First State Sustainability Fund advert on 9 re implicit climate change.

- "Labor to announce Greens tie-up", preference deal shuts out Family First in the Senate, firms up ALP in most House of Rep seats. p7 27 Oct The Australian [but note too not till Saturday 6 days away that the preferences are final, says Barry Cassidy on Insiders today]. SMH carries same story re frothing Senator Fielding

- grotesque greenwashing? Alcoa tree planting adverts p11 The Oz this weekend. And lets not forget the Alcoa sponsorship of Frog Watch. Where do we start? Investing in dams of mountain rivers for cheap electricity? Massive GHG emissions in the manufacture of aluminium? It's fraught.

 - Big media commentariat becoming the story, take 2: Mike Carlton pays out on his rivals scrambling to get a conceptual honourable footing as the power tectonic shifts. Doogue also notes Sheridan big retreat in Howard's grand failure article.

- Crabb  the dreadlocked one re focus groups and PM use of same, correctly notes rodent nature of John Howard making his false denial, [with untrustworthy nature also the theme of Laurie Oakes today in his long interview on 9 with the PM, as below, and now Rudd this arvo]. Less whimsy or satire by Crabb rather elbow to solar plexis of govt.

- Scientists say energy supply humanity's biggest threat, p11 resources todays The Australian

- the (sydney) magazine cover pictures legalised drugs (nicotine) dealer Nick Greiner ex politician now company director, next to ex pollie Bob Carr who blessed the offshore coporate trickery of James Hardie asbestos makers via the Supreme Court, when Carr was Premier of NSW. These two folks never looked so glossy or dignified on a unity ticket in the mass fatality business. Killers in suits?

- Story by Glenn Milne p 1 Sunday Telegraph above about Turnbull 'betrayal of Cabinet' [Adelaide sister paper version] implies unauthorised leak by MT. But just as likely Howard or Costello authorised it to control the message? Christian Kerr of Crikey broke the story 10 days ago, not AFR yesterday but no doubt more detail.

- The controversial worm flagged by Amanda Meade 2nd item her gossip column Oct 18th 2007 (ie 3 days ahead of debate)  "Nine, which is insisting on dragging out the worm graphic to sex up its coverage ..." No ambushes there.

- Imre Salusinzky fails to credit in an otherwise worthy full page feature the pioneering Green Party via Andrew Wilkie in Bennelong, and similarly in the seat of Wentworth by a conga line of activists, now both marginal and possibly falling to the ALP - "They dared to hope" p24 27 Oct 2007. But the other twist in the tail is the idea that McKew if she wins:

"McKew could easily leapfrog deputy leader Julia Gillard in influence and become the most powerful woman in a Rudd government".

Well aging hack crushes aside, Imre, that's taking it a bit far, but what odds Jenny Macklin on the backbench?

- NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner is the PR antidote to the Coalition mega fire strategy against ALP states as summer approaches. His father died fighting bushfires. Understudy to Minister Phil Koperberg. 23 years in the game, head of operations for 10 years. Sun Herald p51 28/10 [offline by the looks, picture above]

- curious grouching by News ltd press about missing the advertising dollars in an airbus wrap around, tries to push unpatriotic button re dead solider, hence p3 personal pics of fallen hero in Sun Herald today as rebuttal from Fairfax [offline?]

- This devastating line in an article about one of our dead soliders in Afghanistan "But after the Prime Minister, John Howard, withdrew Australian special forces late last year to assist with preparations for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, the Taliban returned" Under the authorship of Tom Allard, Ash Sweeting. The implication is that Oz soldiers put in harms way by ultra secure APEC Sydney indulgence - should have been in Canberra. (p1 Oct 27 SMH "Soldier respected foe who killed him"

- Milne has follow up story tipping Stephen Long's great World Today interview about differential regressive CPI increase masked by averaging of lower cost luxury goods. Long is right, Milne is right, Swan is on a winner too. Echoes Meglogenis "It's the personal economy" p22 Oct 13 2007.

- Higher Education The Oz p26 17/10 "Wedge fear will stop ALP fixing Lib failure" refers to "tweedledum and tweedledee" which I believe was a phrase first used in 1993 by The Wilderness Society to describe both ALP and Coalition policies on 'resource security' open slather logging. Possibly adapted by Peter Warrington or Karenne Jurd, hence the personal attacks later by Paul Keating of KJ and TWS.

- Big thread of FoI reform stories here and here and here and here  involving serious academics but also serious players like Chris Merritt as here, Rudd, Hartigan and Garrett especially re $12K bill in follow up to Good Weekend cover story on dying Great Barrier Reef Oct 13 2007 from climate change.

- John Durie Oct 10 p44 The Australian - "Big Gunns gamble needs brave board/ The decision on a mill is literally a bet-the-company proposition". In short the economics don't add up. Similarly strong summary of tricks of redefinition of "old growth" by Matthew Denholm in "Chip off the old blockade" but TWS campaigner gets definition confused too for our money  - any tree with hollows is old growth p22 Oct 27 2007 The Australian.

- Ructions in Big Business with Paul Anthony as CEO of AGL getting 'shafted' (along with spinner Sue Cato) was prominent on promoting climate change policies. The coverage is suggestive of a bit of an operational stuff up [possibly offline called "Cold snap stretches the gas pipeline to breaking point" p24 Tues Oct 23 2007 The Australian] which might have caused a mini capital strike against AGL by its customers? Michael Chaney similarly supports CC policy reform and is now chair of Woodside as Shell director Russell Caplan bails out. Woodside was perch of Gary Gray now an ALP candidate in Kim Beazley's old seat.

- Malcolm Maiden correctly identified the 'indispensibility/ in denial/ we'll all be rooned' syndrome with Peter Costello predicting global financial meltdown, as a projection of his own political meltdown. p45 27 Oct 07 smh.

- [to be continued]