LNP voting rites. Old school Queensland Liberals are becoming alarmed at the growing influence of the Christian Right within the LNP. Local media has cottoned on and has run a series of stories in recent weeks about a powerful group within the parliamentary wing which dubs itself the ‘Happy Clappers’. At least one sitting MP attends church services where ‘speaking in tongues’ is the order of the day and those adhering to a strong Christian creed also did very well for themselves during recent candidate pre-selections for the 2012 state poll.  More progressive tongues have also been wagging about the known links between two state MPs and Sydney’s Hillsong Church.

Ministers can’t turn the page. Apparently, both the attorney-general and minister for justice dislike having to read both sides of an A4 page. Officers in the Attorney-General’s Department are required to submit all attachments to submissions on one-sided printed paper only, doubling the amount of paper used for documents the ministers probably don’t even read. So much for the government’s ‘green policy’. And the Department is having printers removed so the 4.5 star-rated building it’s housed in can comply with energy usage ratings. Maybe if the ministers learnt to read double-sided paper staff could have a couple more printers back.

Pay up, freelancers demand of ACP. ACP Magazines has not paid a number of freelancers for months now. It is blaming this on the introduction of a new invoice processing system. However, with the imminent re-listing of Consolidated Media Holdings by its VC firm, you can see how it wants to get its books in order to demonstrate the best shareholder value. In the meantime, freelancers are going unpaid, with no end in sight.

GWS fed by three governments. How come no one seems outraged that the ACT government is going to tip $26 million over 10 years into supporting the new Greater Western Sydney team to play three games a year in Canberra. The $26 million is CPI adjusted (isn’t that great, the AFL club gets the benefit of inflation while a lot of Canberra rate payers will be stung for CPI inflation and more in the same time). The $26 million works out around $650,000 a game, give or take $10,000.

What is offensive is that while screwing money out of taxpayers in Canberra, the AFL and the team are putting the weights on the NSW government and on local government in Sydney, while the AFL is pushing the TV networks for a billion-dollar TV rights contract for five years from 2012. The Sydney team will play its games at Manuka Oval in Canberra, which can seat just 10,000 people. Australian football used to be strong in Canberra because of the links to Melbourne where many early public servants came from. But rugby league (the Raiders) and rugby union (the Brumbies) have overtaken it and regularly get crowds of up to 20,000  and sometimes more for big games.

The National Rugby League meanwhile has got more than $11 million from the federal government for a headquarters to be built at Moore Park in Sydney. Originally it was going into the Olympic site at Homebush, but has been switched to Fox Studios. Why the change? Not explained in public at least.