Night Watch Report:  The Governor General, Quentin Bryce on Monday swore in to Kevin Rudds new cabinet new frontbencher Ed Husic. Nothing new here except that the new frontbencher swore alegience with his hand on the Holy Qur'an. Although this is act is new in Australian politics. In the past two prime ministers have sworn an oath of allegiance to the commonwealth instead of the Queen: Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating.

Between the two, Prime Minister John Howard returned to a pledge of allegiance to the Queen instead of the commonwealth – although removed references to her heirs, and kept in the section about “the people of Australia”.

"I, [Minister's full name], do swear that I will well and truly serve the people of Australia in the office of [position] and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. So help me God!"

From September 2010, ministers made the following oath or affirmation:

I, [Minister’s full name], do swear that I will well and truly serve the Commonwealth of Australia in the office of [position]. So help me God!
or
I, [Minister’s full name], do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will well and truly serve the commonwealth of Australia in the office of [position]

The unknown photographer that took this photograph of Winston Churchill achieved and unusual pose which Churchill himself liked. The look on his face and raised eyebrow was achieved when the photographer at the last minute before taking the photograph snatched the cigar out of Churchill's mouth.

What is it about photography that has captured the interest, curiosity and imagination of people everywhere. Welcome to my blog .... Before the invention of photography, to create an image of a person or a landscape you had to engage the services of an artist. Whether the image was sketched, painted or carved out of some solid object the creating of some form of artwork was limited to a few select people that were blessed by talent, social standing or wealth. Now with technology, the opportunity to create is widely available to almost everyone. Even in countries where there is hunger and famine, mobile phones enable people to take stunning colour photographs.