from Crikey …..

So Bill Shorten is doing it tough on his $330,000 a year. The poor fellow. 

Well if it's hard living on a ministerial income, he will find it even harder living down this comment published in the Sydney Daily Telegraph this morning. 

It was a tale of two interviews this week. Leigh Sales from the 7.30 Report destroyed Tony Abbott and exposed the Leader of the Opposition for the fool he is.

from politicoz …. 

On the weekend, Northern Territorians voted out the ALP government, replacing it with Terry Mills' Country Liberal Party. This was the fourth successive state or territory election in which a Labor government has been ousted.

Forget the Prince Harry photos. Forget Julian Assange's balcony address from the Ecuadorian embassy. The best thing published this week, by a country mile, is the transcript of Julia Gillard's exit interview from the law firm Slater & Gordon, conducted 17 years ago and printed on Wednesday by The Australian.

My, how they do love a saucy scandal or a sinister conspiracy theory out there on the lunar right. The first I ever heard came from one Russ Hinze, a large and repellent oaf who was Joh Bjelke-Petersen's minister for roads and police in Queensland.

Tensions within the world's most powerful media family were dramatically laid bare last night when Elisabeth Murdoch set out her own vision of media leadership, emphasising humanity over profit and criticising her father's News Corporation for operating with an absence of values.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has failed in an attempt to sell a block of Fairfax Media shares after the company reported a record annual loss.

It emerged after the market closed that Mrs Rinehart was trying to sell about one third of her 15 per cent stake in the struggling media company.

from Crikey ….

Once the religious, the hunted and weary

Chasing the promise of freedom and hope

Came to this country to build a new vision

We have spent our careers as filmmakers making the case that the news media in the United States often fail to inform Americans about the uglier actions of our own government. We therefore have been deeply grateful for the accomplishments of WikiLeaks, and applaud Ecuador’s decision to grant diplomatic asylum to its founder, Julian Assange, who is now living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

from the 7:30 report ….

Eight former executives from companies owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia are facing committal for trial over charges of bribing foreign officials and questions of connection to the central bank are being asked.