http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/joe-aston/ As a young child, Joe Aston was moved to Hobart, Tasmania, where he initially lived on the sweeping grounds of the state’s most notorious asylum. After finishing high school there, Joe made a half-hearted stab at a law degree and his foray into student politics ended badly after he ran in student union elections for the position of queer officer while refusing to confirm or deny his sexuality. He then wisely returned to Sydney and studied communication at UTS.  Joe has also worked as an adviser to several Liberal politicians, including MP Bruce Baird and the federal workplace minister Joe Hockey. During this time he attended many chook raffles and never once won. After being unkindly turfed out of a job at the 2007 election, Joe went to work as a spokesman for Qantas where he chased flight attendants and broke world records for inflight champagne consumption while cavorting around the globe on staff travel benefits. In November 2009, Joe joined the Sydney office of public affairs firm CPR where he mainly spends his time thinking about flight attendants and First class champagne. His inkprint as a journalist includes stints as a feature writer for GQ Australia and Singapore’s August Man magazine. For several years, Joe has also been 90 per cent finished his first book – a tome that began as a polemic on the one child policy and mutated into a romance novel set in the Xing Dynasty. Its latest manifestation is best described as a cross between A Farewell to Arms and Green Eggs and Ham. He still refuses to confirm or deny his sexuality. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/progressive-wanted-for-gayest-seat-in-the-political-village/ Federal politics is losing quite a remarkable figure in Malcolm Turnbull. But Liberals in Sydney’s east must now turn their minds to choosing his replacement. The waters are somewhat muddied by the preselection campaign for the state seat of Vaucluse – itself entirely within the borders of Wentworth. Former NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam has seen the writing on the wall and is backdooring it at the next election. Several of the candidates for Vaucluse, like Gabrielle Upton and Peter Doyle, are now considering a shift of strategy and a tilt for the bigger prize of a federal seat.There is a strong case for preselecting a Jewish candidate. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Joe Aston) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/progressive-wanted-for-gayest-seat-in-the-political-village/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/progressive-wanted-for-gayest-seat-in-the-political-village/#item2787 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:40:33 +0000 Joe Aston | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-virgins-gain-has-damaged-the-flying-kangaroo/ When Virgin Blue finally announced that John Borghetti would take the reins of the airline in May, the only question was why they took so long to arrive at this no-brainer. Virgin Blue’s search for a new chief executive has, for the past five or so months, been the same story written one hundred different ways. Borghetti, initially seen by pundits as the Cinderella for the discount carrier’s slipper, fell quickly out of contention in late 2009 after the Board seemed to keep the search rolling despite his availability. They kept us all off the scent with remarkable ease. And why should anyone care? Well the company has never had a change of CEO since co-founder Brett Godfrey took the helm from the get-go in 2000. Despite ten years of very impressive growth, Virgin Blue has up to fairly recently been somewhat of a poor cousin to the far larger Qantas and lacking the ultra-cheap cost structure of Jetstar. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Joe Aston) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-virgins-gain-has-damaged-the-flying-kangaroo/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-virgins-gain-has-damaged-the-flying-kangaroo/#item2524 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:35:40 +0000 Joe Aston | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/terror-in-the-skies-its-a-judeo-christian-hang-up/ What is it about air travel that evokes in people such morbid fascination? In his recent essay, A Week at the Airport, philosopher Alain de Botton reckoned that, basically, we’re all both petrified of, and obsessed by, air travel because our various religions have successfully instilled in us a prevailing awe of the skies, of the heavens and of whatever else goes on above the clouds: “Despite its seeming mundanity, the ritual of flying remains indelibly linked, even in secular times, to the momentous themes of existence. We have heard about too many ascensions, too many voices from heaven, too many airborne angels and saints to ever be able to regard the business of flight from an entirely pedestrian perspective, as we might, say, the act of travelling by train.” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Joe Aston) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/terror-in-the-skies-its-a-judeo-christian-hang-up/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/terror-in-the-skies-its-a-judeo-christian-hang-up/#item1696 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:50:05 +0000 Joe Aston | Author bios | The Punch