There I was enjoying a family outing at Pinjarra Park raceway in rural WA (100km south of Perth) when a fellow punter commented, “Hey, your favourite pollie is here this arvo, har har”. Indeed, when I checked the racing form it included the “Tony Abbott Handicap”. I thought this was hilarious, and decided that the locals clearly had a fine sense of humour.

I nearly woofed my cookies when the man himself appeared in the winner’s circle (and on the impressive new screen above the old tote board) to present the winning trophy with his local buddy Don Randall, federal member for Canning. The horse I backed (a fine looking gelding named “Fuzzy Logic”) didn’t even place … another omen?

The slideshow presentation delivered by the Pirate Party to Exit International members on bypassing internet censorship has been made available.

The property world is funny isn’t it? Why is it that the API (Australian Property Institute) is deleting membership details from three of its keynote speakers for its upcoming international property conference? Mr Reed, Mr Cheung and Mr Fernandez are all members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

RICS has been based in Australia for over ten years now and the API have never been happy about it. Problem is for the API that most of its members, and certainly nearly every overseas valuer, is a member of RICS; the largest membership and standards organisation for valuers in the world.

Cheung and Fernandez are high ranking members of RICS in the Asia region. It seems that the API are getting petty about their event, which hasn’t attracted the major sponsors that the API hoped for.

Check out the Labor Connect: Labor People page, In the right of centre word Web several topics seem to be absent. Perhaps these topics are Seeking Asylum in a remote location, or they may have taken flight with a People Smuggler, or Immigration has sent them to other web pages. It couldn’t be that ordinary Labor members aren’t concerned?