The Government seems to be filled with a desire for a few changes around here. This is first and foremost from the office of the Attorney-General, George Brandis:

THE repeal of the ‘Andrew Bolt’ provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act that make it unlawful to offend and insult people because of their race will be the subject of the first legislation Attorney-General George Brandis will introduce to parliament.

The repeal, which will honour an election promise, will change the definition of racial vilification to eliminate at least two of the grounds that were used against the conservative columnist over articles about light-skinned Aboriginal people.

And then there’s this, again from the Attorney-General:

LITIGATION funders and plaintiff law firms are facing the prospect of regulatory change after Attorney-General George Brandis strongly criticised the involvement of law firms in the companies that finance class actions.

He said the litigation funding industry was under ‘active consideration right now’.

He believed the involvement of law firms with these companies gave rise to unavoidable moral hazards and conflicts of interest.

‘I am by no means satisfied about the way this is dealt with at the moment by rules of court or by self-adopted protocols by those practitioners,’ he said.

‘In the near future it is my intention to give some indications about the way I think those conflicts of interest and moral hazards should be addressed.’

And finally there’s this:

TONY Abbott will take an axe to 20 government committees and councils today in the first stage of a campaign to cut costs and slash redundant agencies.

The move comes as the government warns of a mounting bill to top up funds at major commonwealth authorities, as regulators plunge into the red in a struggle to meet growing demands.

The Prime Minister’s changes, to be unveiled today, risk a backlash from groups ranging from sporting shooters to adoptive parents as he scraps advisory councils and hands their functions back to government departments.

And let me say about these advisory councils, that my experience on them was that we were hardly ever responsible for the slightest change in anything although I would put in a good word for the Australian Statistics Advisory Council (ASAC).

But I liked this in particular from Joe Hockey:

Every cupboard I am opening has spiders in it — as illustrated by the fact that, in a meeting with the ACCC, they tell me that they are running out of money in April this year and that they are underfunded for the next four years by over $100m.

If you have this kind of arachnophobia you should avoid becoming Treasurer in a Coalition government immediately following a Labor Government, but I am sure that Joe will be on top of it.