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Happy New Year ... and happy reading as stories is all we really own ... There were so many stories created at Iceberg last night with Mal, Lisa, Mark, Krys, Carla, Robin, Dave, Marie, Pauline. Not even the presence of the spoilt brat, Paris Hilton, could spoit the Silvester NY party at the hot Berg at Bondi ...

Blasts from the past: Under the Westminster doctrine of separation of powers, the executive government is responsible for the police while the administration of Parliament is the responsibility of the presiding officers and legislators. We should keep things that way ...

STATE MPs are apprehensive about the prospect of NSW Police special constables taking charge of security at Parliament and patrolling its corridors. At least one - Lee Rhiannon of the Greens - has vowed to ban the constables entering her office. She is appealing to other parliamentarians to join the boycott. It comes after previous conflicts with police when officers entered Parliament armed with warrants to search MPs' rooms as part of ICAC investigations. Two years ago indignant MPs instigated a review of historic parliamentary rights to prevent a recurrence of unannounced police raids on Macquarie Street.

For the past 150 years, Parliament's security has been controlled by the Speaker, the upper house President and the two clerks. But this Westminster tradition has been challenged by an ASIO review of security arrangements that recommended the introduction of special constables. Alex Mitchell: MPs want police to stay out of Parliament

The words we learn mostly come in under the radar, get filed, and then pop out obligingly when we need them. Sometimes, however, we're very conscious of a new arrival and, especially so, the first time we use it... "Well, it's always been a bit strange and it's never entirely natural is it? I don't know what the word is but natural doesn't fit," Clarke chuckles down the line from his home in southern England. "Still it was no place for a shrinking violet." A man of his words: Biggest stone hits The Glass House

When you consider that an entire plate of broccoli contains the same number of calories as a small spoonful of peanut butter, you might think twice the next time you decide what to eat
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Not everybody wants to work with them, but independents may soon hold the balance of power in the NSW Parliament. Jonathan Pearlman examines their impact. On a Tuesday morning, in a small boardroom in Parliament House, the state's foremost anti- Baywatch activist is declaring, yet again, his undying opposition to letting cameras and bikinis run loose on his local beaches. "The reason I'm in Parliament is because of Baywatch," the Mayor of Pittwater and MP for the electorate of the same name, Alex McTaggart, says to a delegation of filmmakers, as his seven bemused independent parliamentary colleagues look on. "I've got nine pristine beaches. They're not workshops."

"A friend of mine who makes props for the film industry has not had work in the film industry for over a year," he said in a private member's statement. "He has a clever and unique talent but once the film industry deteriorates beyond a certain point, people like him will not be able to easily get back into it. I urge the Government to implement the recommendations of the NSW Film Makers Group." The political power of one

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