This is a really disturbing insight into the mindset of Shorten and Labor's (taxpayer-funded) media minders, but it also tells us a lot about the Press Gallery.

The Australian's Nick Tabakoff reports, "Shorten’s travelling spin doctors were openly voicing plans to other Canberra journalists to blackban Lea when the election was won and done".

I'd have thought that was news - but did you read a single report from any of them about it?

Good on The Australian for running the story today - but this should have been news during the campaign.  The Canberra Press Gallery is a mate's club - and we're not invited.

But now Diary can reveal another instance of the Shorten camp’s supreme arrogance about both Lea and the election result. We now hear Shorten’s travelling spin doctors were openly voicing plans to other Canberra journalists to blackban Lea when the election was won and done.

The tenor of Shorten camp’s dialogue with some gallery journalists was along the lines of: “We’re probably going to win the election, and if we do, we won’t be speaking to Jon Lea.”

Lea, of course, blew a huge hole in the credibility of the costings of the Shorten camp’s climate change policies during a viral press briefing early in the campaign. The whinge of Shorten’s spin doctors was that Lea’s coverage had been favourable to the Coalition for a long period.

But was the Shorten camp demonstrating a glass jaw? Diary now hears Lea was as tough on Scott Morrison as Shorten during the campaign, when he turned the blowtorch on the PM several times.

For example, on May 8, one of the tougher days of the campaign for the Coalition after The Daily Telegraph’s “Mother of Invention” front page about Shorten’s mum, we’re told Lea led the charge with other reporters in insisting Scott Morrison had to hold a press briefing that day.

The ScoMo camp had originally planned to avoid answering journalists’ questions that day. But Lea and other press gallery journalists rightly stood up to him on this, and ScoMo eventually had no choice but to relent.

ENDS

Here's Jon Lea in action!

I was watching and filming workers dismantle a high-rise crane near my building in City Rd, Southbank, when this happened, at about 2pm today.

Luckily the guy under the load was able to bend down, pick up his hardhat & walk away!

Construction is a risky caper!

Disgusting.

Sickening.

Revolting.

Senior Labor sources said it was still the plan to give the suspended general secretary a year’s pay, about $305,000, to leave, once she was ­released by the Independent Commission Against Cor­ruption from giving evidence. However, the party’s ­adminis­trative committee has yet to deliberate on this.

Ms Murnain was questioned on Friday about an inconsistency in her evidence last week to ICAC, which is investigating alleg­ations that about $100,000 in illegal donatio­ns was given to her pre­decessor, Jamie Clements, by Chinese­ developer Huang Xiangmo. Mr Huang has denied being the source of the donations.

In last week’s evidence, Ms Murnain said Labor Party lawyer Ian Robertson told her on September 16, 2016 — after former MP Ernest Wong had told her about the illegal donation — that there was “no need to do anything from here”.

“Don’t record this meeting, don’t put it in your diary,” Ms Murnain said Mr Robertson had told her. “Forget the conversation hap­pened­ with Ernest, and I won’t be billing you for this either.”

On Friday, Mr Robertson’s counsel, Tony McInerney SC, showed Ms Murnain a document from Mr Robertson’s firm, Holding Redlich, that stated NSW Labor was, in fact, billed $20,555 for the meeting. One line item in the bill concerned telephone conversations and a meeting with Ms Murnain about political donations on September 16, 2016.

Mr McInerney accused Ms Murnain of lying about the ­meeting, which he said was not about the Huang donation but about a controversy over Cabramatta MP Nick Lalich accepting what could be viewed as a ­donation from a ­developer, in the form of a trip to China.

Mr McInerney: “You came ­unstuck when your version of events had … Mr Robertson (saying) he wouldn’t be billing you for the meeting?”

Ms Murnain: “No, I did not.”

Mr McInerney: “He did bill you, didn’t he?”

Ms Murnain: “You would have to ask Mr Robertson.”

Mr McInerney: “Your evidence he wouldn’t be billing you is a complete fabrication.”

Ms Murnain: “No.”

Mr McInerney later said: “Ms Murnain, your evidence to this commission has been a pack of lies, hasn’t it?”

“No,” Ms Murnain replied.

Later, counsel for the Labor Party, Arthur Moses SC, challenged Ms Murnain on why she had not told party officers, as required by the party rules, when she was told of the alleged $100,000 ­illegal donation, which ICAC has heard came in an Aldi bag.

Ms Murnain broke down on the stand — as she has on her two previous days of evidence — when Mr Moses asked her to confirm that it was her responsibility to tell other party officers of matters of concern and to act with “integrity and honesty”. Ms Murnain wept as she admitted she had made ord­inar­y Labor members look bad.

Shocked onlookers have captured an ugly brawl in the Showbag Pavilion at Adelaide's Royal Show. https://t.co/41IgrbiXwo #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/SDP56peB4K

— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) September 6, 2019

One of the granddaddies of them all was Thiess and the AWU during the 1990s.  With the corrupt AWU chief Bruce Wilson's support, Thiess avoided any competitive process for the award of a $60M WA Government contract - The Dawesville Channel.  At the same time, Wilson's corrupt slush fund received $300K from Thiess, and his heavily indebted AWU Branch ($700K in the red for that year) made a $110K donation to Labor Premier Carmen Lawrence's election campaign.

ACCC Immunity & Coopera... by Michael Smith on Scribd

PS - I am pleased to report to you that I am now in a useful dialogue with the CDPP over one aspect of the Thiess/AWU corrupt payment scandal.  I'll let you know more as soon as it's prudent to do so.

Hang on … it that THIS JUDGE?
Shouldn't that rule him out of making these type of decisions?
*Ping @mpsmithnews pic.twitter.com/4N8J9KNfxS

— Jill❌ (@1Swinging_Voter) September 6, 2019

The Tamil issue will quickly disappear from our screens & newspapers once the family is sent back.

But while they're here, Albo and KK will continue to make mileage out of them.

Labor must be very pleased with Judge Bromberg's decision.

Corbyn and his friends in Parliament don’t trust you to make this decision - but I do. Let’s put it to the people: more delay with Corbyn’s #SurrenderBill, or Brexit delivered on October 31st 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/q8tIwDMkcH

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 5, 2019