The discussion in the Pig’s Arms front bar has been heating up all week.

Armin was the first to stake his claim over total dominance of the high moral ground.

“I have never received a phone call from either Malcolm Turnbull or Joe Hockey. Not in recent weeks, not ever. And despite my purchase of a second-hand ute from Danny next door, I have never sought financial assistance from Wayne Swan”.

“I bought it with bar tips and from money I earned doing courier work for the Hell’s Angles.”

“Exactly what kind of courier work ?” inquired Merv.

“They often get me to carry soap powder over to their laundry in Canberra”.

“Like the soap powder famously found in Emmjay’s boogie board?” snorted Merv.

“I guess so”, said Armin, “Apparently there’s a huge whitewash job underway in Treasury. They seem to be having a bit of a problem with leaky equipment though, and there’s supposed to be a huge puddle running all the way from Godwin Grech’s hard drive, down the street, past Liberal Party headquarters and ending up in Steve Lewis’ in-tray”.

Seeking to distance himself from an earlier post concerning a desire for a new guitar, Emmjay pointed out (that as Hung has since confirmed), the guitar in question was a Gretsch and also definitely had nothing to do with the Grech currently experiencing random memory failure.

“I may have offered Kevin Rudd the use of my Zephyr – strictly for campaign purposes – but I have never sought special favours – particularly in relation to charges concerning an unfortunate international incident commonly known as the ‘yellow crocheted swimmers affair’.

Merv said that scurrilous rumours that he had swayed Steve Fielding to vote one way or the other on the pink alcopops legislation were completely unfounded.

By this stage it was getting pretty crowded on the small patch of high ground next to the bar, and there was barely enough room left for Anatomou to deny any familial connection with Nick Xenophon, or specific advantage gained from a few billion dollars of Penny Wong’s Murray Darling cash for the environment concession.

The unspoken and pivotal comment was left – as usual – to Voice.