By Roy Weavers, Editor

This week our two main party candidates have left most of the vitriolic behaviour to their leaders.  Both PM Julia "The Real" Gillard and the Part-time Broadband expert and Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott have been schmoosing about in other parts of the country, about which both our Leichhardt candidates are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

It means both our candidates could make lots more multi-million dollar statements without fear of anyone standing beside them saying 'we're not going to support any unrealistic promises" thus swiping their feet from under them.

Jim Turnour had a good start to the week when he welcomed the announcement by Cathay Pacific that they would now fly daily between Cairns and Hong Kong, bringing an additional 26,000 seats a year to Cairns.

"This is another good sign for the local tourism industry and builds on the work that I have been doing with TTNQ and the Cairns Airport to bring more flights to Cairns," Member for Leichhardt Jim Turnour said.

"The Cathay Pacific service which triangulates through Brisbane is an example of the type of service that benefits from these aviation regulatory reforms which are particularly important as we pursue direct services with China that would likely triangulate by flying first to Cairns then onto either Brisbane or Sydney."

Meanwhile, Warren Entsch, the Liberal National candidate, was on higher matters, well higher up the coast anyway.  He and Shadow Cabinet Minister Scott Morrison announced an elected Abbott Government will deliver $22 million over two years to repair and upgrade deteriorating sea wall infrastructure in the Torres Strait.

"The Labor Member, Jim Turnour, and his government have ignored the recommendation and instead decided to monitor tide heights by installing tidal gauges and I've spoken to residents in the outer islands and they don't need Labor's tidal gauges to tell them what needs to be done".

Jim Turnour in midweek temporarily dispensed with any more election promises and took some real life action when he activated the new traffic signals on the Captain Cook Highway at the Smithfield roundabout.  The new signals will be used to control traffic entering the roundabout from the Kuranda Range section of the Kennedy Highway, between Smithfield and Kuranda, during peak periods.

The unfortunate part for Mr Turnour in regard to this upgrade of the Smithfield roundabout was that it only cost $350,000 which in the current climate of candidates indulging in throwing about millions of dollars hardly warranted a headline in the local press.

The week didn't get any better for Jim when Mr Entsch came back from the high ground of the Torres straits, only to try to take the even higher moral ground on the unfortunate use of Saub family boat images by the Coalition TV advertising.

Mr Enstch slammed the ALP and sitting member for Leichhardt Jim Turnour for their opportunistic and disgusting political point scoring at the expense of the Saub family (victims of the Malu Sara incident).

Mr Entsch said that Jim Turnour and the ALP are using the election to be nasty at the expense of a grieving family.  It is insensitivity at the highest possible level, Mr Entsch said.....Well that told Mr Turnour didn't it?

There's just one thing, however,  is it me or does this seem a peculiar turn-around since it was Mr Entsch's party that used the images in the first place!  Probably best not to get involved or it might end up being my fault!

I suppose on a national level "The Real" Julia Gillard probably made fewer gaffs this week than her opposite number in the Coalition.  After all Tony Abbott, on two occasions this week, admirably showcased his grasp of the broadband issue and then followed it up with a superb demonstration of mental arithmetic when he insisted during a radio interview that the Coalition's spending commitments would total less than $18 billion.

However during a debate on the economy with Treasurer Wayne Swan just hours later at the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Hockey, Shadow Treasurer said, "I can say to you emphatically so far this election campaign we have announced expenditure of $25.733 billion.  And we have announced savings of $28.534 billion".

Labor seized on the confusion, with Mr Swann saying it cast serious doubts over Mr Abbott's economic credentials, let alone his adding up skills. "This is a $7 billion gap between the two figures," he said.   Oops, maybe Tony needs to get up on the Internet and check his figures, Oh, wait a minute he hasn't got broadband has he?

With just one more week of election-jeering to go, we'll try to keep you updated with everything that mishaps, sorry that happens, on a daily basis but at the rate the information comes in, we may need to ask Jim to help us with a faster broadband than we currently enjoy, well there's no point in asking ITony is there?