Meet The Press Live Blog

Host: Greg Turnbull (bahh ... where's Buongiorno? He's much cooler, and his name's rhyming slang for porno ...)

Panel: Elizabeth Knight - Sydney Morning Herald, Tony Boyd - Australian Financial Review.

Guest: Finance Minister Nick Minchin

Yeah, they're `stunning' by-election victories in Queensland, Mincho ... but seven seats versus 61 and you've got a loooong way to go, buddy. Trying to thank the Qld Nats for this win, given that it's one of the few states where the two parties are not in Coalition, is either foolhardy or just plain idiotic. However, it's plainly clear that the spin doctors have told the Libs that unity is the song to be singing at the moment, not intra-Coalition biffo.

Speaking of Steve Fielding ... did you know he's one of sixteen sibling? Holy shit. Family First indeed! It's too bad Fielding has not demanded that his Family Impact Statements be publically released - as Turnbull implies, the IR one would be a humdinger.

HAHAHAA - now that's a good one, the government owning a public utility is a `conflict of interest'!

Part Two
This is beside the point but boy, is Nick Minchin a smug bastard or what. And to dismiss allegations that the Telstra sale will be used for a slush fund by saying Labor plans to use the money for `pet Labor' projects.

Holy shit ... so this is Minchin's solution to Telstra's shitty share price. They're not actually going to sell the shares - instead of selling the shares and putting the money in the Future Fund, it looks like they're actually going to park the shares themselves in a portfolio and call that the Future Fund. Whoa! That's quite something. You heard it here (almost) first. I'm gobsmacked. No big fat T3???

HAAHAAA - the ACCC is `too interventionist'! I wonder how long Sol Trujillo will actually stick around? After all, moving from the US to Australia would almost be like News Ltd moving from Delaware back to Australia as far as regulation goes. Will he bother sticking it out or just go home?

Oh, here we go, another slang of Harry Evans. `He should stick to his job of administering the Senate' - isn't this exactly what he was doing? I'm getting well pissed off by Turnbull's habit of giving a little supportive comment to the Lib guests at the end of each interview.

I'm not going to blog the telecommunications expert, but I will start putting a link to Meet The Press at the end of my blog so you can check the transcript. So here it is.