The contest for preselection in Bradfield is about to get a little more interesting with international lawyer Jason Yat-sen Li to declare his candidacy. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has been working very hard to convince Yat-sen Li to run. Turnbull and Yat-sen Li have been very close ever since they first met at the Constitutional Convention in 1998. Other front-runners for Bradfield, including Julian Leeser and Tom Switzer, fear that Yat-sen Li might just have what it takes to win the preselection, especially if he has Turnbull’s backing.

The Australian Human Rights Commission is determined to do the Federal Government’s business of watering down the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. It is well known that the State would have kicked up an almighty fuss had the Federal Government ratified the CRPD, without exceptions. So, the Federal Government made two key exceptions: 1) around forced interventions and 2) around substitute vs. supported decision making.

The AHRC has co-opted a gaggle of disability rights advocates who know that their entry “into the tent” is conditional upon them bending over and accepting this markedly diminished version of the CRPD. When Australia goes to the Committee on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities in Geneva in October 2009 and puts forward the totally absurd proposition that substitute decision making and supported decision making are one and the same thing, we as a nation will lose even more credibility in the global human rights community.

Could Annabel Crabb, the semi-regular star of ABC1’s Sunday morning gabfest Insiders, be about to jump on the Aunty payroll full-time? Snitches say the national broadcaster is gagging to get its hands on the excitable Sydney Morning Herald scribe, asking her to move to Melbourne to do a “bit of everything” around the network.

More on the Qantas lack of IT systems. The online check-in was down all day last Thursday and Friday. I read in Crikey that perhaps we are all meant to ring up and annoy the poor call centre staff … perhaps Qantas should give us the phone number for the CIO and we can tell him.

I made an online Jetstar booking. All went well until the part where they want you to fill in your Qantas frequent flier account number to claim your points. The process froze here. These numbers had to be removed before the booking would be allowed to be completed. A phone call to Jetstar had the customer service droid advise that the “system” is faulty and they don’t know when or if it will be fixed. You have to ring Qantas separately to claim the points. Why would they ask for the FF number on the on line booking page if they can’t/won’t process it?

From the Crikey Sightings desk:

  • Spotted. Anna Bligh jaywalking across two streets today at Park Road, Milton. Sending the right message?