Gillard Q&A gets personal. Last week Julia Gillard visited the Latrobe Valley and met with workers from the Hazelwood coal power station, earmarked for closure as part of the government’s “Green Energy Future”. But according to one worker who was there, while attendees were told to prepare questions in advance, this wasn’t like the public forum-style chats Gillard had been doing the week before. Only 50 or so people attended (half of whom were workers, the rest were their wives and kids) and they only got the call that it was happening the afternoon before.

After a 10-minute spiel about how she promises not to leave the Latrobe Valley workers in the lurch, like they had been during privatisation in the 1980s-90s, Gillard said she’d stick around to talk and answer questions. But this wasn’t a normal Q& A session. Instead, if you wanted to ask Gillard something, you had to walk up to her and ask it privately. Meaning you couldn’t hear what questions others had already asked and no one else could hear the answer you were given.

She wasn’t being accountable, one worker told Crikey. Plus, lots of kids were busy asking to get their photos taken with the PM, leaving little room for their mums and dads to debate the issues that affect them. “We need to stop treating her like Bon Jovi,” says our tipster.

ACA staff movements. A Current Affair executive producer Grant Williams regularly pops up in our tips inbox with scurrilous rumours of his management, no doubt from bitter network rivals. The latest claims of an “exodus” don’t seem to carry much weight — Crikey hears two junior staff in Sydney left the program to work in the Nine newsroom while one Melbourne-based staffer might be considering his future. Not quite a mass walkout. But we love the gossip all the same — keep it coming, TV types.

Manne inside The Oz (and NotW). Robert Manne is furiously re-writing his investigation of News Limited and The Australian for The Monthly to include the latest information on the News of the World phone hacking scandal, we’re told. The deadline has been pushed back to accommodate. Apparently Australian editor Chris Mitchell gave Manne carte blanche to poke around The Oz’s floor at Holt Street in Sydney for two days with David McKnight to observe and speak to journalists.

Fairfax manager and the NotW. Fairfax video content manager Ricky Sutton has been questioned by his bosses on his time at News of the World in London, as Crikey reported a fortnight ago. He assured management he knew nothing of phone hacking. There’s more to this, we’ve been told, so our media writer Margaret Simons is digging further. We’d love more information from the deep-throat or others who watched Sutton’s time at the Murdoch tabloid. Drop Margaret a line or feed us information via our anonymous form.

Jetstar boss in Qantas luxury. Spotted: Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan strapped in to seat 1K of Qantas flight QF22 from Narita to Sydney last night. A Jetstar flight, we’re reliably informed, left five minutes later.

DIY blood tests at the GP. Yesterday we reported one regional Queensland GP was so disgusted by the costs of pathology blood tests for patients on blood thinning drug Warfarin that they decided to do the test in the clinic themselves. Another medical professional backs the case: “We have been doing INR tests in our surgery for at least two years; the patients really appreciate the service because they get their results instantly and the test is easily performed by a nurse. One difficulty is that there is no item number to cover the strips, which cost $6 each. I have no idea what pathologists get paid to provide the same results.”

Meanwhile, one Crikey reader on Warfarin disputes that the cost of the drug is excessive but tells us the number of tests are certainly going up: “DIY INR monitors (finger prick and drop of blood, similar to home blood glucose monitors used by diabetics) have been available for several years, and the advantage is the GP in the surgery can get the result straight away and adjust the dose, without the patient having to call back later. I think this convenience is what is driving surgery based tests, not costs. I have thought about buying one myself, but I would have to buy the monitor, and the test strips, so happy to visit the pathology collection place and let Medicare do it for no cost to me.”