Start a Race Riot, Win Life's Lottery

Tim Blair brings news of Kim Sattler, the Humpytown Crier and noted supporter of terrorists, who last came to prominence when her conversations with a prime ministerial staffer launched an Indigenous intifada against Tony Abbott. Readers will recall the big news arising from that event was that Julia Gillard lost her shoe; less commented was the fact that she surrounds herself with people who see a race a riot on Australia Day as a neat trick for impaling a political opponent. Sattler kept a low profile after that disgrace, but is now back in action and denouncing Abbott as a lifelong Zionist, which probably means the Opposition leader has more wild scenes ahead. As recent events in Sydney have demonstrated, Sons of the Prophet tend to a much greater volatility than welfare recipients living in shipping containers on the lawn of Parliament House.

But what of Sattler's phone buddy, Gillard staffer Tony Hodges? He last made headlines with news that his part in the Australia Day outrage had earned him the sack -- a career setback from which he progressed directly to London and a reported job at the European Bank for Reconstruction with former Labor hack Senator Bob McMullan. If you need to be swept under a rug it is nice to find a mentor beneath the pile with a pay cheque ready and waiting

Well things are going swimmingly for Hodges, it is good to report. There is lots of European touring, a comfy lifestyle and many happy snapshots of his travels to share with friends back home.

And Hodges' happy lot includes plenty of time for twittering as well, including to any number of reporters. Surprisingly, given that many questions about the Australian Day riot remain unanswered, their interest in the co-instigator of that February unpleasantness appears limited to cooking tips...

 ... and chummy, idle chit chat

One day, being journalists and driven by a compulsion to reveal the truth, the Fourth Estate may get back to asking about that riot, what Hodges' current job may be costing the Australian taxpayer, who arranged it, and if he has any plans to whip some trouble with the Welsh by passing along the whisper that David Cameron has been heard engaging in hate speech against leeks.

But the minestrone has to cook first.

UPDATE: Commenter BH notes one of those delightful coincidencs. Today in the Sunday Telegraph, Maiden describes the Australia Day riot thus:

After some false starts and celebrated debacles - witness the Australia Day fiasco which included the Prime Minister losing a shoe - her office is gearing up for an election year.

Yes, it is that lost shoe which is the most important thing to remember about the melee. Not the lost adviser-cum-kitchen companion

Persons Of Interest

WANTED

Tony "Black Arts" Hodges

Sought for questioning in connection with a Canberra race riot. Hodges is believed to travelling incognito and is said to enjoy the protection of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Not believed to be dangerous unless encountered in company with pale people wearing Indigenous war paint and waving spears.

Hodges may be travelling with this woman, who presents herself as an Aborigine. Attention should therefore be paid to grant-issueing establishments.

Kim "Humpytown Crier" Sattler

Anyone observing this pair should contact the press on 03 8667 2250 and report the duo's whereabouts. Then they should call that number and repeat the information all over again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Do not be discouraged by  loud yawns on the other end of the phone. That is the sound of quality journalism and is entirely normal.

Grech Should Have Been So Lucky

ONE of the criticisms often directed at conservatives is that we prefer to live in the past -- and that is absolutely correct. If only the clock could be turned back, how nice it would be to re-visit the latter half of June, 2009, when Godwin Grech was holed-up in his Canberra home while an infestation of press people ruined the nature strip. They were there for weeks, recording in minute detail what neighbours thought of the Utegate mystery man, the parcels he received and any other scraps of trivia that came to hand.

Today, after just these few short years, look how standards have slipped. A Gillard staffer, Tony Hodges, begins a chain of events leading to a race riot, is fired and promptly vanishes. So, too, the white rabbit of Humpytown, Kim Sattler.  POOF!...and she is gone without a trace. There seems no curiosity to find either of them, which could not be that difficult, or to press for the answers that the disgrace on Australia Day at the The Lobby demands.

There is only one difference between then and now. When Grech’s hijinx came unstuck it was a Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, who appeared gullible, crooked or both. Now that it is the Labor Prime Minister who must explain herself, there is not the slightest effort on the part of the press to find either of the two people most relevant to the matter. The inconsistency would be shocking if not so predictable.