Today is the 200^th anniversary of Chopin's birth. ABCFM has excelled itself in playing Chopin for most of the day with performances by such notable performers as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Alice Sara Ott, Alexander Tharaud, and the great Maurizio Pollini.

The Victorian Ombudsman's Report on Child Protection released in September last year makes interesting reading. The report is particularly scathing about the new software that has been introduced for case mana. The software was estimated to cost under $30 million but ended up costing $95 million.

One assumes that when Ken Henry chaired the Tax Review he was supported by the tax policy branch of the Treasury as well as assorted modellers and policy people. This raises the question of who is advising the Government on the Henry Review? It can't be the same people who wrote it.

You can't help feeling sorry for Peter Garrett; he is looking a bit like the ham in the sandwich, caught between the Prime Minister's office and his own department.

Phil Eastick died on the evening of 11 February 2010. He was one of the most original thinkers I have ever met. He started his adult life intending to follow on of the most prosaic professions, the law, but gave it away to become a rock and roll roadie. He eventually became the manager of Alice Cooper and Julio Iglesias.