I’d love to know which goose asked this question of Brendan Nelson (who’s come out of hiding to non-answer some questions while overseas.)

QUESTION: Is it upsetting for example you know there’s now a Facebook page trying to recruit Peter Costello to the leadership? Is that sort of thing personally insulting?

Oh, for fuck’s sake. In terms of quality journalism that’s up there with “[insert search term here] returns 100,000 results on Google” and “look at this dumb thing that some dumb person has put on eBay”. And anyway, there are five different Facebook groups that support Costello’s ascension to the leadership and Prime Ministership.

That’s a massive grand total of 197 people on Facebook who want Peter Costello to lead the Libs. Hardly the groundswell of support that justifies a doorstop question.

Oh, and then there are these groups. I’m lovin’ that first photograph and the threat of ritualistic beheading.

That’s 59 people who oppose Costello’s leadership; just under a third of the number of those in favour. Where’s the dopey journalist’s (sic) question about those groups then?

But perhaps the most insightful Peter Costello group on Facebook is this one.

Peter Costello: pwned.

Dr Brendan Nelson — the man, the politician, the leader — in a nutshell.

Dr Nelson has confirmed today he does not believe moves to means test the baby bonus are good policy – but he will not stand in the way of the implementation of a new $150,000 means test.

“We disagree with it, but we’ll support it.” This man is not just sitting on the fence, he’s been fairly guillotined in half by it.

But just in case your understanding of Nelson’s stance on the policy of means testing wasn’t muddied enough already, check this out.

UHLMANN: Brendan Nelson, isn’t it reasonable to apply a means test to a couple on $150,000 a year before getting a baby bonus or a family tax benefit? Would you say that’s a reasonable point at which to apply a means test?

DR NELSON: Well the first thing is that I think it’s very important that we support families; we support men and women who are trying to raise children. As far as the Government is concerned it’s decided that one of the things that it will do in trying to justify its own quite significant pre-election spending commitments is to target families.

UHLMANN: Is that reasonable?

DR NELSON: Of course we…

UHLMANN: $150,000?

DR NELSON: Well we’ll just have a look at this. Now…

UHLMANN: You haven’t got an opinion on that?

DR NELSON: Well we’ll just have a look at the fine print on this. I mean let’s have a look at this because what this means is that in terms of the baby bonus there are two things. That if you earn a dollar more than $75,000 in the six months after you’ve had a baby Mr Rudd is saying that you should not and are not worthy of getting a baby bonus. The second thing is that he’s also saying to every Australian mother, to every Australian family, that instead of getting the $5,000 as a lump sum payment, that instead you have to get it over a fortnightly basis over 13 fortnights.

UHLMANN: Just to be clear, Brendan Nelson, how can you on the day after a Budget not have an opinion on where the means test should cut in? The Government has set its mark. It’s $150,000. Is that a reasonable mark?

DR NELSON: Well, again, as far as we’re concerned what the Government is doing is targeting families and targeting something which we think needs to be encouraged as far as having babies is concerned. We will have a look at the detail of that and we’ll also have a look at the detail of the Family Tax Benefit B, and the means test being applied to that.

We think that a means test on some of these benefits is reasonable but we do not… we are very strongly in favour of supporting families and supporting families having babies and we believe very strongly in encouraging people to get on and work hard.

UHLMANN: But if you believe there should be a means test you must have a figure on when that would cut in? At what point should government support, should government welfare stop for the wealthy? Is there a number that you can put on it?

DR NELSON: Well look, Chris, as I say, the key thing in this Budget is that for every Australian you have to ask yourself, whatever your income, you’ve got to say to yourself: is the Budget going to make it easier for me to balance my household budget, to afford my home, put petrol in the car, to buy groceries, to do all the things I need to do to raise a family.

What Mr Rudd is doing is increasing taxes, increasing spending and targeting groups and individuals that he does not like. We are having a serious look at the detail of some of the things because we’ve found with Mr Rudd and Mr Swan they’ll assert something and then you actually have a look at the detail and it’s a little bit different. But as far as we’re concerned we will have a look at the thresholds that are being applied.

I’m actually… dare I say it?… embarrassed for Brendan. He’s a sad, sad man.

ps/- Wah’s written a great post on the Liberals and means testing.

Victorian Premier John Brumby chants that education is his number one priority like a mantra, but utterly fails in making it so — Victoria can proudly claim that it has the lowest paid teachers in the country. After months of negotiations with the teachers’ union (following months of the government refusing to negotiate at all) the union has reduced its ambit claim of 10% per year to nothing more than pay parity with NSW teachers. But Brumby won’t budge from the government’s standard offer of a barely-CPI 3.25% rise per year with anything over this figure to be offset by productivity gains. Ask any teacher where there’s room in their work day for extra productivity and they’ll probably laugh at you before punching your lights out.

But here’s the weird thing: Victorian opposition leader, the Liberals’ Ted Baillieu, is promising to make Victorian teachers the best paid in the country if elected in 2010. This shit’s messing with my mind.