The Media Monitors' Top 20

Wayne Swan is the big mover in this week's Media Monitors' Top 20, writes Patrick Baume.

Wayne Swan moves up two places and gets more than half his bosses coverage, the media managing to cover more than one story at a time last Wednesday, much to the Treasurer’s chagrin; while Julia Gillard moved in to the top five, a spot that you would think she might occupy regularly, but doesn’t, all thanks to dear old Eddy Groves.

Lindsay Tanner continues his romance with the Press gallery (they can’t get enough of those sharp snooker player looks, or the fact that he actually says stuff) and his opposite number Joe Hockey was also getting plenty of coverage.

Plenty of other big movers in the lower half of the list, with the debate over why the automotive industry is a protected species and whether that will save it anyway gave Kim Carr a rare appearance; Andrew Robb kept up the attack on those poor public servants and Anthony Albanese started to think about where to bury the news of the wonderful infrastructure projects he’s now not going to build.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	*22,467*	1,000
2	2	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	389	713	571	383	*11,072*	514
3	0	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	240	328	380	365	*7,911*	328
4	-2	Premier	Nathan Rees	275	380	96	511	*9,025*	315
5	8	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	229	464	360	120	*5,543*	293
6	3	Cabinet	Lindsay Tanner	60	284	215	98	*3,594*	164
7	0	Premier	John Brumby	127	111	99	57	*1,811*	99
8	-3	Premier	Anna Bligh	136	117	47	64	*1,753*	91
9	5	Shadow	Julie Bishop	47	145	50	63	*1,795*	76
10	2	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	104	88	43	56	*1,437*	73
11	14	Shadow	Joe Hockey	59	131	51	33	*1,367*	68
12	-2	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	14	110	43	105	*2,068*	68
13	21	Cabinet	Kim Carr	38	74	46	28	*953*	47
14	10	Cabinet	Anthony Albanese	36	52	1	57	*1,030*	36
15	22	Shadow	Andrew Robb	19	45	63	15	*667*	35
16	2	Shadow	Tony Abbott	13	62	31	32	*859*	34
17	-1	Premier	Mike Rann	42	47	21	24	*674*	34
18	-12	Cabinet	Penny Wong	49	20	1	52	*808*	30
19	10	Premier	David Bartlett	55	20	13	32	*614*	30
20	13	Backbench	Peter Costello	53	29	5	30	*605*	29

The Treasurer on top and the two Finance spokesmen in the Top five, do you think the hip pocket nerve is starting to feel the pinch? Only question about this list, wherefore art thou, Malcolm and Julie?

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Wayne Swan	247
2	Kevin Rudd	241
3	Joe Hockey	196
4	Nathan Rees	105
5	Lindsay Tanner	90

A little bit of sanity returns after all this financey news stuff, as the nation turns its focus to who the Aussie skipper should have tossed the ball to in the third session of the fourth day of the fourth test, with the over rate ten behind and the Indians six down. Finally, statistics we can all understand.