Political Diary

TUESDAY

Barak Obama's popularity may have been on the slide, but when you are New Zealand's Prime Minister, it is still hard to beat getting to shake hands with the President of the good ol' US of A. Readers of John Key's weekly online newsletter, Key Notes, could link to a separate page displaying no fewer than 10 photographs of Obama pressing the flesh with the Prime Minister, most of them so similar it was a case of "spot the difference". Cynics would say Key was just one in a long "meet and greet" line-up of leaders waiting to be welcomed by Obama at the President's nuclear security summit in Washington. It's all somewhat reminiscent of the photos they take of you at major tourist attractions, where the prints are ready and waiting for you at the exit so you can take them home to show off to your relatives. Except Key doesn't have to go bungy-jumping to have talking-point pictures for his scrapbook. And he wouldn't have to pay for them.

WEDNESDAY

As always, Phil Goff was dead keen to get Labour's view of the Government's plan to build a new private prison in South Auckland on to the airwaves and online news services as soon as possible. So there was frustration that his office could not contact Labour's law and order spokesman, Clayton Cosgrove, to give his okay to a statement to be released under his name. It turns out Cosgrove was visiting the Spring Hill Corrections Facility near Meremere at the time. Like other prisons, the institution has jamming technology to stop illicit use of cellphones by inmates. The technology was introduced in all prisons in 2008 by none other than Goff when he was Corrections Minister.

THURSDAY

Labour's Trevor Mallard blows the whistle on National backbencher Katrina Shanks. Someone tips Mallard off that Shanks, a Wellington list MP, has been playing FarmVille, the real-time farm simulation computer game available through the social networking website Facebook. The game allows members of Facebook to manage a virtual farm by planting, growing and harvesting virtual crops and trees, and raising livestock. "Just to let people know how well Katrina is using the [parliamentary] recess," writes Mallard with more than a touch of sarcasm on Red Alert, the Labour MPs' blog site. Some readers respond that the blog says more about Mallard's use of his time than it does of Shanks' use of hers. We concur. It is hardly the crime of the century. For the record, Shanks says she had a lengthy list of appointments and engagements on the morning in question, starting with a working breakfast with local community leaders at 8am. We're not sure why Shanks needed to be so defensive about it. Or why Mallard - Labour's spokesman on the Rugby World Cup and the America's Cup - is such a spoilsport.

FRIDAY

They say it is an ill wind that does not blow someone some good. When Phil Heatley (briefly) lost his Cabinet post, his press secretary Nick Bryant was temporarily sent to the office of Gerry Brownlee, who had been without a permanent press secretary since Stephen Parker left late last year to return to TV3. Heatley is back in the fold. But he was the one left looking for a press secretary. Bryant is staying with Brownlee - a promotion which takes him from working for the 17th ranked minister to the third-ranked one.