As Cosmicjester noted the other day, Brendan Nelson has started to use the Cate Blanchett test to expose a supposed skewing of Prime Ministerial priorities.

…Kevin Rudd found the time to go and visit Cate Blanchett’s new baby. If he has got the time to do that, he has got the time to meet pensioners and seniors organisations including those people protesting in Melbourne and actually listen to what they have to say.

Here is Dr Nelson applying the test to Mr Rudd this morning in relation to the proposed closure of a post office.

DR NELSON: I think what needs to happen here is that Mr Rudd needs to pick up the phone and speak to the head of Australia Post and say look, keep the post office where it is. I mean in the end this is the whole point. I mean you need a candidate who’s going to stand up and a member who’s going to stand up for the people of Gippsland, not sort of come down from Canberra and tell you what’s good for you.

CALLINAN: Can I just get this right Brendan, sorry I don’t usually interrupt guests but I was just struck by your response there. You’re suggesting the Prime Minister of the country should get on the [p]hone to the head of Australia Post and say oh by the way, Traralgon Post Office – what are you doing with that. Do you think that’s the sort of micro-management the Prime Minister should be engaged in?

DR NELSON: If that’s what it actually takes to get something delivered for the people of Traralgon then in the end that’s what you’re going to have to do. I mean he’s got the time to go and visit Cate Blanchett’s new baby and that’s terrific and take a gift, and if he’s got time to do that then he or indeed the relevant Minister should be, Stephen Conroy should be getting onto Australia Post and saying look we’ve got a big issue in Traralgon about place of the post office.

Pathetic. Simply pathetic.

Whether or not you think the Australia 2020 summit was an awesome idea or a pile of steaming turd (listen to this week’s GrodsThink — broadcast on Tuesday — for the GrodsTeam’s take on the summit and its outcomes) you’d have to agree that the media’s coverage was rather selective. If you read a newspaper this morning you would’ve been confronted with an image on the front page of either Cate Blanchett or Hugh Jackman. Or both.

By the way, did you know that Cate had a baby a few days ago?

Bridgit’s touched on the fact that ordinary punters felt they couldn’t get a word in edgeways…

Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to make sure that you knew that Cate Blanchett had a baby last week and took him along the summit.

Anyway, where was I? Oh that’s right. Here’s a snapshot of the media coverage given to summit participants using Australian newspaper journalists’ favourite research tool (Google):

* There are 713 mentions of Cate Blanchett (did you know she had a baby?) and the 2020 summit on Google News.
* There are 409 of Hugh Jackman and the summit.
* There are…

(Cate Blanchett’s baby, that she had a few days ago and took to the summit, is named Ignatius.)

…386 mentions of Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman at the summit.
* There are 267 mentions of Cate Blanchett and Ignatius (that’s her son that she took to the summit).
* There are 176 mentions of Lachlan Murdoch at the summit and he even owns one of the largest media organisations in the country.
* There are 59 mentions of Julia Gillard at the summit and she’s the deputy Prime Minister.

(Just so you know, Cate Blanchett’s new baby is only a few days old and she was still able to go to the summit. And she took the baby.)

* There are 4 mentions of Kate Hands at the summit.

GrodsCorp fun fact: Cate Blanchett — whose job it is to memorise lines of dialogue and recite them while pretending to be another person — gave birth to a son last week and, like, totally stole the show at a giant policy development forum where there were hundred of other people (whose names may not be instantly recognisable) with actual knowledge about things that matter thrashing out the future direction of the country! By the way, did you know that Cate managed to co-chair a working group and take breastfeeding breaks?