Tory mayor gets down and dirty

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman refers to himself as "can-do campbell" - like just last month when he proved he "can-do" something about shopping trolleys, employing council workers to race Coles to stray trolleys and stealing about 1500 off local retailers in a month.

Everyone else refers to him simply as "Noddy" because of his appearance and an army adventure where he led a group of men down a road causing the expedition to get 199 flat tyres.

Unbelievably Newman has managed to lower his credibility further today after being exposed for running a political dirt unit.

The dirt unit has been operating for some time; just last month it detected that a fellow councillor was invested in Newcrest mining, and went on to argue that an councillor was hypocritical for investing in it, whilst opposing nuclear activity in Brisbane (more bizarre when you consider that Newcrest is in fact a gold mining company).

To make up for this embarrassing stunt, the Tories did what any vermin does when boxed into a corner - revert to primal instinct. Today the dirt unit circulated documents to media outlining personal details about opposition councillors.

Newman has responded by saying he was merely trying to "rip apart the tissue of misleading nonsense". Whatever that means.

Read the full debacle here.