Joining the club. They’re bitchy at the bar. “It’s silly silk season and the familiar names are again putting their hands up around Australia,” the Fin reports today. “In Queensland, there is a new name on the applicant list that is raising a few eyebrows: federal Liberal backbencher George Brandis.” Bitchy at the bar – and bitchier in Brisbane. “If George misses out on silk, it might be interesting to see if he will approach the Queensland Club for membership,” a sunshine state snout suggests. “He’s missed out twice there I hear.”

Wither the whistleblowers? Is there a need for a new generation of whistleblowing law in Australia? A new paper by AJ Brown from the Griffith Law School has found significant variation in the scope of whistleblowing law between the different states and territories, and calls for a “second generation” of law throughout Australia, calling it “one of the most complex, conflict-ridden areas of public policy and legislative practice”.

What’s a seat worth? Benefits of incumbency keep growing and growing and more public money gets used for politically partisan purposes, helping governments hang on to power, according to a new paper out from ANU’s Democratic Audit of Australia.

Perceptions of bias. What’s Federal Labor MP Con Sciacca doing filling in on air on 4BC the week before a state election?