Well, Duh!

Comment is almost superfluous (but I won't let that stop me) on this story: Tony Abbott, Australia's opposition leader, is quoted as saying "No one -- however smart, however well-educated, however experienced -- is the suppository of all wisdom."

Perhaps the kindest thing that could be said about this, from an Australian point of view, is that it diverts attention from the Australians' collapse yesterday in the fourth test match.

Or that, arguably, an earlier gaffe from a candidate in Queensland (of course), Stephanie Bannister, a female welder, describing Islam as a country, was not only worse but was only one of a series, leading her to be described as Australia's Sarah Palin.

Ah, Australia, where men are men and women are welders!