Naked Eye

Premier Kristina Keneally was under fire last week for crowing about a letter she'd received from London mayor Boris Johnson in which he "saluted" her government's decision to develop an electronic public transport ticket mirroring London's Oyster card. The salute may have been motivated more by the $3.5 million royalty cheque that Johnson will snaffle as a result of Sydney using London's technology, rather than any affinity between the Conservative mayor and the Labor Premier. Is there another connection between these two famous fair-haired politicians? Well, the Premier's top media adviser is Lisa McLean who returned recently from London where she worked in Johnson's City Hall office, affectionately referred to by Londoners as "the testicle". McLean worked for Bill Clinton's Climate Initiative alongside Johnson's climate-change team. (There's no suggestion she had anything to do with that letter).

*SPOTTED: Adam Walters, hard man of Channel Seven News,

entering Franck Provost hair salon on Macquarie Street at 10am on Thursday. For $55, Provost offers a "consultation, stress-relieving massage, shampoo, conditioner, cut and blow dry" (gentlemen only).

*A GOOD local member must be willing to go in to bat for the most defenceless constituents. Liberal MP Michael Richardson has questions on notice about the survival of "Hairy Geebung" (pictured) and "Tangled Bedstraw". Both are threatened flora species that stand no taller than 12 millimetres and grow in his Castle Hill electorate. He also wants answers from Environment Minister Frank Sartor on the health of "Austral Pillwort" and "Square Raspwort". Richardson, a real green thumb, has past form in unusual questions. He once wanted to know why bushwalkers had to share accommodation with "aggressive weirdos" in our national parks.

*THE mud-slinging has begun in Penrith before the byelection on June 19. Actually, it's worse than that. Sewage was tossed back and forth last week between Liberal candidate Stuart Ayres and Labor. Ayres claimed the government had discharged 70 tonnes of contaminants from treated sewage straight into the Nepean River. He went on to accuse the government of hiding the figures by not publishing data from Sydney Water. His comments got such a good run on a local newspaper website, they even included a media contact number from the bottom of the press release. Then Water Minister Phil Costa's office explained the figures were available on the Sydney Water website and all contaminants were pumped out to North Head with the rest of the city's sewage. Pooh, they'll have to find another issue to squabble about.

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