Dear Gillian I am sorry it has taken me a few days to respond to your request. Last week was a bit busy, what with the book launch and my unanticipated death. On reflection, I don’t think I could, in all good faith, publish a correction exonerating you for misleading the Senate. But Mr Whittaker has agreed to withdraw the cartoon depicting you with your pants on fire. Yours truly Bill ______________________________________________________________________________ Bill Leak die

Congratulations to the ABC on their International Women’s Day initiative. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Grace Collier, Janet Albrechtsen, Kerryn Pholi and Jennifer Oriel.

Last week the Liberal Party, and particularly its leader, opted out of debate. Following the inquiry into the racial discrimination act, there was no attempt to explain the case and to argue for the abolition of 18C and the human rights commission. In fact, some ministers argued that free speech was not a significant issue! How on earth do they expect to make improvements to social policies if they cannot discuss issues for fear of offending someone? Following the FWC recomm