naked eye

*Upper House MP Walt Secord took a rural road trip last week, and left some infuriated Nationals MPs in his wake. The master spinner, who has worked for Bob Carr, Kristina Keneally and Kevin Rudd, took his first trip to the country as the duty MP for Tamworth and Tweed. He drove to Tamworth and gave a press conference outside the jail on Wednesday morning that attracted a swarm of local media. "The prison guards tried to chase me away, but I explained to them that I am the duty MLC for Tamworth and that the Liberals were considering closing Tamworth prison," Mr Secord said. "So they gave me the go-ahead and let me do the press conference." Mr Secord then went to Tweed Heads with Federal Labor MP Justine Elliot to demand that the government provide disaster funding to fix the severe erosion on Kingscliff Beach, that threatens to swallow the local surf club and caravan park. Kevin Anderson, the Nationals state MP for Tamworth was not impressed. Mr Anderson hit back at Mr Secord for what he called: "a political stunt of the worst kind." "What he effectively did was put the jail into lockdown. In the end some [prison] officers needed counselling because they thought they were going to lose their jobs," Mr Anderson said.

*First there was Jennifer Hawkins, above, but could our next Miss Universe be called O'Farrell? The Premier shared an unknown aspiration with the crowd at the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch on Wednesday. He said that when he retires from state politics, he will throw his phone into the harbour. "I do not want to have a mobile phone in retirement and I intend to do some good work for a change in the charities. I'm running for Miss Australia."