The biggest stories to make the news this week on 2UE

MILESTONES

CUT - The interest rate by the Reserve Bank to an historic low of 2.75 per cent.

CLASHED - John Singleton and trainer Gai Waterhouse at the More Joyous steward's inquiry

VISITED - Papua New Guinea by Prime Minister Julia Gillard

ANNOUNCED - A referendum on whether local governments should be recognised in the federal constitution on September 14, the same day as the federal election.

CHARGED - John Tomic, the father of Australian tennis star Bernard Tomic, over headbutting his son's playing partner

QUOTES

"It was just a little act of high jinks, whoever it was carried out by." - Prime Minister Julia Gillard jokes that there will be no "prime ministerial pardon" for Queensland student accused of throwing a sandwich at her.

"The people involved are a beat-up jockey, a brothel owner and a footballer, and that's what's got us sitting here today. It's an absolute disgrace - you're an absolute sham, John, you really are." - Gai Waterhouse at the More Joyous inquiry.

"He owes me an apology. He needs to front up and man up." - Businessman John Singleton calls on former rugby league great Andrew Johns to tell the truth to the More Joyous inquiry.

"I've noticed from my latest observations that the only people who can have kids are women." - Senator Barnaby Joyce on the coalition's parental leave scheme.

"Now would be a very good time to revisit this policy with a view to scrapping it before the next election, so we can go to the election without this albatross around the neck of the party." - Liberal backbencher Alex Hawke breaks ranks to say the coalition's paid parental scheme should be dropped.

"Tony Abbott's extreme workplace relations policies should send a shiver up the spine of every Australian worker." - Employment Minister Bill Shorten on the opposition's workplace policy.

"Our people find existing visa arrangements very frustrating. Some regard them as insulting." - Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill tells Julia Gillard that the two countries' bilateral relationship could be improved if it was made easier for Papua New Guineans to visit Australia.

"Wong says revenue write downs now $17bn. Last week Gillard said $12bn. Week before Swan said $7bn. Budget in complete chaos!!" - Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey takes to Twitter to point out the federal government's ever-declining revenue forecasts.

"The reason it's dangerous for me to answer is we have this kind of cultural image of leadership that self-doubt equals weakness and we don't like to sense weakness. And so we don't exhibit weakness and I don't exhibit weakness." - A candid Julia Gillard explains why she won't expand on an earlier admission that she suffers from moments of doubt.

"I am extremely distressed that my remarks, which were accidentally heard on air, have been reported and misinterpreted as racist against indigenous Australians and possibly offensive to Darwin citizens." - ABC rugby league caller David Morrow who was suspended for unwittingly broadcasting remarks condemned as racist.

ODDITIES

+ Returning one of British tennis ace Andy Murray's 140mph serves requires clairvoyance as well as skill, research has shown.

Only by predicting the future can people stand any chance of hitting the ball back. Yet this is a feat routinely accomplished by the brain when faced with fast-moving objects, a study has found.

Whether it be an on-coming tennis or cricket ball, a striking fist, or a car, the brain looks ahead of time. To compensate for delays in neural processing, it "sees" the object not where it is, but where it will be a fraction of a second later, the researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, said.

PA

+ Colombian police who stopped three nuns when they arrived on the Caribbean island of San Andres on a flight from Bogota found four pounds of cocaine strapped to the legs of each of them.

A police spokesman the three women seemed nervous, and the fabric of their habits did not look right.

All three broke into tears and launched into tales of financial hardship when they were caught.

PA

+ Officials on an island chain off the northern coast of Norway are advertising for someone to work as a polar-bear spotter.

The governor's office on the remote northern islands of Svalbard is seeking a polar bear spotter to warn researchers doing projects in the region where bears outnumber people by 3,000 to 2,400.

The position requires previous experience of the outdoors, good polar bear spotting skills and a competence with firearms.

A spokesman from the governor's office says the successful candidate would be unlikely to have to use a gun "just as long as they have a loud voice" to scare off any bears.

PA