On Monday WA Minister Michelle Roberts was stripped of her Employment Protection portfolio so she could better concentrate on her others of Indigenous Affairs, Housing and Works, Heritage and Land Information. The irony is, the Employment Protection portfolio was given to Minister Jon Ford, who’s known by insiders to have issues with his staff. Several very competent people have left his office, one is considering legal redress.

In the same vein as one might register their dog for a credit card just to see if it works, as a lark, someone has registered a fake Doctor at RPA – not a real person, but a name has been registered and the person never shows up.

Re. SBS. I fear Ned Lander protesteth too much. The former General Manager of SBS Independent had a response to everything, except two very illuminating points: If everything was so hunky-dory, why was he told not to come into the building and just clear off, and what has happened to SBSI, the commissioning arm of the broadcaster he ably led? SBS Management is being very coy about its current status. We note that ominously, the 2020 gabfest is charged with discussing the future of SBS TV and Radio. Sounds like they should be making friends with our Cate real quick.

Is Brian Rosen head of the Film Finance Corp in trouble with the government for saying (SMH) that the FFC is not set up to help Aussie film makers make films about lesbians, drugs and whatever else by producers who couldn’t make a decent film in their life….

I was a business class passenger on the QF 005 Singapore-Frankfurt flight last Wednesday flying to Frankfurt. On FINAL approach into Frankfurt (I cannot remember if the wheels were down or not but flaps were extended) the Captain aborted the landing and instigated a fly around. Usual stuff full power, steep climb etc… Shortly thereafter the Captain advised that the aircraft had experienced an “electronics malfunction” and we were to fly to Cologne and “pick up lots and lots of fuel” and then he would either decide to wait at Cologne for the Frankfurt weather to clear or we would return to Frankfurt and maintain a holding pattern until such time as we could land. The problem as explained by the Captain was that due to the malfunction he could land with 400 metres minimum visibility but on our final approach the weather closed in down to 200 metres so he had to abort the landing. Of some interest was that he advised that other aircraft were landing normally and that they had “decided to have a peek” at conditions which seemed to indicate that they possibly knew they had a problem and made the attempt in the hope that the visibility would hold. Further no attempt was made to hang around to see if the weather would clear and then attempt a second landing. It was straight off to Cologne. Eventually we held at Cologne, finally arriving into Frankfurt just under 4 hours late. It should be added that the Frankfurt weather was atrocious due to bad fog leading to many cancelled flights. Full marks to the Captain and crew who did a good job of keeping us informed and all efforts were made to reorganize onward flights by the Frankfurt ground staff.