I swear I was just resting my eyes.

Peter slipper MP denies vehemently that he was asleep during the joint sitting of Parliament for the address of Indonesian President Susilo Bangbang Yudhoyono.








Fran Bailey on a junket at NATO, even though she had announced her retirement at the next election.









It appears that on both occassions the story was the same - both must have been caught at times when they had inadvertently shut their eyes, as they were not asleep. You can read Peter Slipper's denial here and also Sharman Stone covering for her colleague here.

What amazes me is how the photo of Peter Slipper got into the public arena.  Either an usher is extremely brave or one of Slipper's fellow MP's has snapped him and farmed it straight to his home town paper.  Either way it took guts!

You be the judge - Asleep on the job or not?

Barnaby go back to what you’re good at!

On my iGoogle homepage today was the following quote attributed to Peter Ustinov an English Actor and Author:

"Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much."

Although I do not know to whom Ustinov was referring I immediately thought of Barnaby Joyce. Joyce is a hard hitting take no prisoners kind of politician. He prides (and sells) himself on being a straight talking conviction politician. But he has a tendency to speak first and think later. Many will criticise Kevin Rudd for his outlandish use of words (and sometimes even making them up) but you will never find him producing the rhetoric that Barnaby sprouts which could seriously damage our countries credibility on the world stage and does seriously undermine his own parties economic credibility. Whether it is on foreign ownership or Australia being unable to repay its debts.

Barnaby should seriously consider returning to back benches. He is much more effective as a back bencher who says what he wants without needing to fully understand what he is saying. He is much better with the one-liners than with the detailed knowledge of policy and economics that the Shadow Finance Minister requires. It is truly amazing to see how Barnaby is faltering. It must be truly difficult on the front bench when a seasoned retail politician can flounder so much and so regularly. And it is beginning to show in his demeanour and style. His performance against Lindsey Tanner on the ABC's program QandA was nothing short of horrible. Barnaby looked rattled, aggressive and generally hostile. This is not how a Finance Minister should be. 

He is not doing his team any favours and continues to provide journalists with the distraction of asking every Shadow Cabinet Member questions about Barnaby and his position rather than on either their policies or the criticisms of the Government. 

Barnaby you should return to your strengths, sniping very funny one-liners from the tall grass! Because you are doing little good as a Shadow Finance Minister, other than to the Labor party.