Senate President Scott Ryan: "Order! I actually couldn't hear the second part of that question due to noise from my right. So, if there was something unparliamentary, I'd ask it to be withdraw . . .” Senator Bernardi: “Senator McAllister suggested that the Prime Minister failed to intervene in the preselection of clowns. It’s simply inappropriate and Senator McAllister knows. She should withdraw.” Senator Derryn Hinch: “Isn’t truth a defence . . . ?” Too shay!

A big week for brands This has been a momentous week for this newspaper group as, for the first time in 180-odd years we are no longer officially under the banner of the Fairfax name. To mark the occasion, I wrote to the Fairfax family scion John B. Fairfax recording my sorrow at not keeping the name, whatever the corporate structure is at the top, and he wrote back chronicling his view. “I, as a fifth generation member of the family that ‘made’ The Sydney Morning Herald, lament the passing of the Fairfax name from its publishing affiliations. Ever since young Warwick did his deed in 1987, there have been many emotional moments, not least this last one where the corporate barons have decided that a brand name that has lived through all sorts of tyranny, should be buried. I find the decision extraordinary. There are, if I may say so, some morticians who are enjoying being at the graveside. I acknowledge that change is inevitable but unless you have direct involvement, tradition and respect become difficult to protect.” John B Fairfax . . . mourns the severing of ties between his family name and publishing. Credit:Danielle Smith For the record, Nine’s chief executive Hugh Marks disagrees there is any problem at all with losing the Fairfax name, telling your humble correspondent: “For me, we want to invest in brands that audiences engage with. And that’s the mastheads– [Sydney Morning Herald, Age etc,] – not Fairfax.”

Cultural differences The most retweeted tweet in Australia this year? I thought you’d never ask. I have put in square bracket the rudest word in the English language to spare you, but chronicle that Twitter Australia has formally advised it came from @thomas_violence, and has been RT-ed nearly 570,000 times. Take it away, Mr Violence: “I love little cultural differences, like how Americans are super offended by the word [c&*!] but here in Australia we're super offended by school children being slaughtered with automatic weapons.” Students released from a lockdown embrace following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Credit:AP Joke of the Week A man is cupping his hand to scoop water from a Highland burn.

The gamekeeper shouts, “Dinnae drink thon water, mun, it’s foo o’ coo’s shite ’n’ pish.” The man replies, “My good fellow, I’m English. Be a good chap and repeat that in the Queen’s English.” The gamekeeper replies, “I said use both hands – you get more that way.” Quotes of the Week “Leaders of the world, you must lead. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.” - Naturalist Sir David Attenborough to the UN climate summit meeting in Katowice, Poland.