He may represent one of Australia’s battler electorates but Corio MP Richard Marles apparently still has time for a TV career as well.
The well-travelled pollie (pictured) will star on Pyne and Marles, a new Saturday morning political chat show debuting on Foxtel next week, according to News Corp reports.
The show will pit Corio’s emerging TV celebrity against Liberal counterpart Christopher Pyne each Saturday morning.
And, with eyes on the prize, Labor frontbencher Marles is already developing strategies to wrest the limelight.
“That’s going to be a work in progress, watch that space,” he told News Corp.
We will, Richard. We will.
He was something of a minor celebrity in News Corp pages this week, also emerging as a lucky recipient of free Taylor Swift concert tickets.
And who should be so generous to our well-remunerated MP? Well, who else but fellow northern-suburbs Labor pollie John Eren (pictured).
Apparently Mr Eren received the coveted tickets in his role as Victoria’s Minister for Tourism and Major Events.
No doubt he considered a long list of worthy recipients before settling on his colleague, battling away on a federal parliamentary salary of around $200,000 a year.
But Richard had reportedly attended a Taylor Swift concert in 2013, so he selflessly gave the tickets away to family.
Maybe next time Swift tours she can drop by his TV show for a chat!
Still on locals in, or maybe out of, the news, the laidback blokes at Torquay’s angling club might have a new reputation after Australia Day this week.
‘Police investigate Iraq veteran Kyle Tyrrel over melee with Torquay fishermen’, said a headline the day after.
That would have come as a surprise to anyone who’s tried to get the anglers out of their flashy new clubhouse, let alone into a melee.
But the body of the story clarified the identities of the ‘Torquay fishermen’, explaining they were probably visitors allegedly crab-fishing in a protected marine reserve when they clashed with Mr Tyrrel and wife Liana.
Now that’s cleared up the fishing club members can get back to their tinnies and tall stories.
Just to make it an all-news-related column this week, Double Take was intrigued to hear a national ABC radio report on Geelong’s flash-flooding this week.
Geelong was “devastated“, reported the announcer yesterday morning.
Well, plenty of damage was reported but devastation was possibly stretching the description of Moorabool Street Bridge too far.
The reporter also referred to Geelong as a “town”. Er, Geelong’s officially been a ‘city’ since 1910.
Maybe the ABC should leave the Geelong reports to its Geelong reporters.
