CBD

Coal magnate Clive Palmer's sniffle cleared up just in time on Wednesday, enabling him to park his rump on the chamber crossbench in his new role as federal MP.

Palmer did his bit to raise the standard of parliamentary discourse, as required by new Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, giving independent senator Nick Xenophon the nickname "Nick Xenophobia".

Greens leader Christine Milne chipped in, calling PM Tony Abbott "Typhoon Tony".

Abbott himself reckoned his name for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, "Electricity Bill", probably wouldn't survive the new niceness regime. He spoke too soon: Christopher Pyne called Shorten just that and Bishop waved it through.

The contribution of Health Minister Peter Dutton probably needs work. He calls ALP foreign affairs shadow Tanya Plibersek "Nasty Tanya".

Alas, an amateur, absent any ability at awesome alliteration.

Palmer loses vote

Palmer won his seat by the tightest of margins but Australia's shareholders seem set against him, if Computershare's AGM on Wednesday is any guide. The No.1 item on the normally staid company's agenda was "that Clive Palmer is good for Australian politics" and a whopping 92.44 per cent voted nay.

Evans on the ball

Stepping down as chairman of the shell-shocked Bombers earlier this year has not kept broker David Evans out of the wars. He showed up to his gig as a director at Seven West Media on Wednesday with a bulbous shiner to his left eye.

While CBD's spy immediately conjured images of Evans chained to a desk in a top-secret ASADA interrogation facility, experiencing the wrong end of a phone book wielded by a burly drugs-in-sport investigator, nothing could be further from the truth.

Evans revealed it was in fact a rival code that brought him down - an errant cricket ball during a recent game, to be exact.

Webjet whacked

With Webjet's share price nearly halving since April, it was perhaps inevitable that shareholders would bring out the whacking stick at Wednesday's annual meeting. And so it was, with about 40 per cent of votes cast against granting share options to managing director John Guscic. The online travel outfit also received a rap over the knuckles for its executive pay card, with about 16 per cent of votes against, though the revolt pales compared with the backlash that John Prescott's Aurizon incurred at its AGM in Brisbane. The latter copped a first strike.

Go figure

Fresh from hanging up on CBD over her treatment of arts freelancers (CBD Tuesday, Wednesday), Private Media CEO Marina Go took to Twitter very late on Tuesday night to declare her surprise at CBD's elderly byline photo. "By interview & copy though he was a cadet," she said before bravely deleting the tweet.

While writers at Go's The Daily Review are up in arms over not getting paid, the other new online news site associated with Private boss Eric Beecher, The New Daily, is running an interview with author Anna Funder ... in which she slams media companies expecting her to work for nothing.

Dixon flies solo

To Sydney's Bristol Arms on Tuesday night, where Geoff Dixon was flying solo sans co-owners John Singleton and Mark Carnegie. Basking in the success of a new fit-out were co-founders of the Riversdale Group, Paddy Coughlan and Rod "Ned" Kelly, whom the three are backing for a float early next year. Coughlan said he'd not heard from Carnegie, who was in HK, as to reports the float was being cancelled or rejigged.

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bbutler@fairfaxmedia.com.au