From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

V’Landys says “no offer” from NRL. Crikey‘s inbox was running hot this morning with suggestions that Racing NSW boss Peter V’Landys was about to be appointed as David Gallop’s successor as NRL CEO. But V’Landys clarified that while he wasn’t completely out of the running, he had neither received nor accepted an offer from the ruling ARL Commission. The gig might be expected to pull in well over $1.2 million a year. Other names still in contention for the gig to be announced this week include interim CEO Shane Mattiske and ambitious AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan.

Political aspirations. We’re hearing that high-profile same-s-x marriage campaigner Alex Greenwich may be preparing for a tilt at NSW politics. You’ve probably seen Greenwich in the media as the national convener of Australian Marriage Equality; he recently married his partner Victor Hoeld in Argentina. Greenwich is running on Clover Moore’s ticket for the City of Sydney Council election next month, and a mole tells us he’s gearing up to run as an independent at the next NSW state election (in the seat of Sydney). Our mole reckons there’s some family money that will help Greenwich’s campaign.

Greenwich dodged questions about his aspirations for a state seat recently, saying: “my priorities at the moment are on the local council elections”. We put in call to Greenwich but he hasn’t got back to us yet.

Ashby’s employment. A Crikey tipster claimed James Ashby was now working for a NSW Coalition Senator. This seemed unlikely to us, but we put in a call to Ashby’s slightly grumpy media man Anthony McClellan, who said: “No. There’s a pink pig flying past my window, could you put this in Crikey too?”. We’re just trying to nip this one in the bud.

Pink pig flies past PR man’s window. Hi, Anthony.

Nice wheels. Some Queenslanders are up in arms as Campbell “Soup” Newman slashes public service jobs and finds reasons to wind back all sorts of government programs. A Crikey source reckons there are still pockets of largesse, however:

“Yesterday driving back to the Sunshine Coast from Brisbane I saw two Queensland government cars also travelling towards the Coast. Both were luxury cars with the tops down. One was a BMW, the other was QQV 002 (or Z) and the brand was that one with the interlocked circles. I have no problems with government members/workers having cars supplied with private use included in the terms but do they need to be top-of-the-range brands? If there are to be cutbacks and budgeting to balance the state’s finances it could include senior members’ cars and allowances.”

UQ. University of Queensland students will converge on their $18 million student union tomorrow to arc up about this week’s dubious elections that are the subject of an official administrative probe. Yesterday, Crikey published leaked invoices suggesting a misappropriation of funds from the union to buy advertising for the ruling Fresh clique (Fresh presidential candidate Rohan Watt said he had paid for the merchandise himself but is yet to produce evidence). In a now-notorious student council meeting on August 10, conservative officer bearers forced through secret changes to the union’s regulations that enabled them to register their main opposition group’s brand.

Campus activist Lorelei Links said this morning that “the university can’t ignore thousands of students condemning the sham election. Fresh have tried to steal this election, but tomorrow students will take it back. The evidence is mounting, and students will keep up the pressure until the election is called off. This election is a sham. This election must be stopped.” Around 1000 students are expected to rally at midday, injecting some fire into at the usually sleepy St Lucia campus on the picturesque banks of the Brisbane River.

*Do you know more? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form.