They honour Ernie Ecob, a unionist who declared in 1989 that women only wanted to be shearers for the sex. Meredith Burgmann, a former Legislative Council speaker and mistress of ceremonies at the awards dinner for 22 years, says there have been plenty of changes down the years but one thing remains constant: "Politicians don't seem to have learned a thing. Bless them."

With more than 100 nominations, this year has seen celebrities and sports stars behave better while politicians.... Well, let's just say Clive Palmer distinguished himself by being nominated for the "Good" Ernie as well as three times for the "Bad" Ernie.

Here's an example of Bad Clive's work: He continually calls female journalists "my dear", seriously attacked prime ministerial adviser Peta Credlin and explained his reason  for going into politics thusly: "I couldn't throttle her [Julia Gillard], so I had to get to Parliament to get rid of that woman."

Among other nominations:

● Barrister Ian Pike, SC, asking former NSW premier Kristina Keneally at ICAC whether a crucial meeting had taken place in her "powder room".

● Kevin Rudd for reportedly referring to Keneally as "Bambi".

● Mathias Cormann speaking on the advancement of women in the Coalition: "We're not going to get distracted by these sorts of, what I would say are side issues."

● Christopher Pyne claiming the rise in HECS would not disproportionately affect women because "they will not be able to earn the high incomes that, say, dentists or lawyers will earn".

● Peter Dutton having a plastic nutcracker in the shape of Hillary Clinton in his office.

● Tony Burke comparing Speaker Bronwyn Bishop to Harry Potter witch Dolores Umbridge.

● Michaela Cash explaining herself as Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Women: "I have never been someone who labels herself in terms of feminism ... that movement was a set of ideologies from many, many decades ago now."

● The Festival of Dangerous Ideas scored for advertising a talk titled "Honour Killings are Morally Justified".

●  Women's product manufacturer Libra: "Absorbs way more than you ever did in maths class."

●  And former Labor leader Mark Latham scored two nominations. One is for his assertion that "there is no policy oomph from feminist dogma". The other is for his discussion of ugly women: "So cheer up, ladies. Even if you're a two-bagger, or worse, the host of the Ernie Awards, you're not without hope in the meat market of life." We suspect Latham's second nomination may be a form of Burgmann retributive justice.

Some 350 women have booked to attend the Ernies Award dinner at Parliament House on Wednesday. 

The Bingle bump

There must be something in the coconut water as there appears to be a baby boom happening in fashion land.

PS hears there are a slew of famous Australian beauties expecting bundles of joy in the new year including Lara Bingle, who will soon launch her  self-tanning range The Base, model Nicole Trunfio and activist and swimwear designer Robyn Lawley.

According to our Jenna Clarke, sources at New York Fashion Week, confirmed the three beauties are pregnant, with Trunfio  at five months and Bingle and Lawley both in the "early stages".

While their representatives remain tight-lipped, a video of Bingle, with group of models celebrating the launch of online fashion magazine All My Friends Are Models was posted on Instagram with a small baby bump showing under her loose black gown.

Since topless photos of her frolicking on the beach in Hawaii with her partner Sam Worthington surfaced last month, the 27-year-old model has refrained from posting her usual bikini shots online and is nowadays usually seen posing with her back to the camera.

Local bookies have been quick to cash in on the news that Michael Clarke's former flame is set to become a mother to the "bogan from Rockingham" turned Hollywood rising star, Worthington, 38.

"We're betting on the name of William and Kate's second baby so we thought it was only fitting to do the same for Lara and Sam," Sportingbet's Andrew Brown said.

"The name Jake is our top pick if it's a boy because of what the Avatar character of the same name did for Sam's Hollywood career.

"We don't expect to take too many bets for Michael."

Lisa Ho's court case goes on

The plucky fashion veteran Lisa Ho was back in the Federal Court on Friday for a directions hearing in her effort to sue her former pal turned financial adviser Hamish McLaren for $850,000 she gave him to invest on her behalf. McLaren – also known as Hamish Watson – filed his defence last month.

Back in the day the Australian Securities and Investments Commission banned him from being a financial adviser for three years but in 2011 Ho paid him the money after they entered an agreement in which he promised an 18 per cent return on the funds. She never saw a cent. And after a 2012 personal confrontation that went nowhere and lawyers' letters, Ho got nearly $200,000 13 months ago but was left whistling for the rest.

Once a doyenne of Sydney fashion, Ho's world has tilted upside down in the  past few years.  She divorced her husband, Philip Smouha, and shocked the industry when her businesses Lisa Ho Designs and Lisa Ho Retail went into liquidation last May with debts  of about $11 million. She bounced back last month with the launch of a new ready-to-wear line - L by Lisa Ho - at Myer's spring-summer fashion launch. Meanwhile, the court case rolls on.

Sydney the gelato capital of the world

It is a little known fact that Sydney is now the gelato capital of the world.

Two local ice-cream artisans scored big-time in this month's Gelato World Tour titles in Rimini, Italy. Enmore's own family-run gelato and coffee bar, the Cow and the Moon, was named the world's best gelato.

John Crowl and his son Sam won the title for their "Almond Affogato". According to the judges, it "embodies a Madagascan vanilla bean gelato with roasted caramelised coffee almonds folded through with a Kenyan coffee caramel sauce".

Cronulla's Diana Kontoprias of Frangipani Gelato won the peers' honorable mention title with her cool piece of Australiana, "Pavlova", "a meringue-flavoured base, passionfruit puree and meringue pieces folded throughout".

One of only two women competitors, Kontoprias was born in Australia and learned the art of gelato when she met Italians on a trip home to her parents' Greece. "I think I speak for many Australians when I say you can't go wrong with a good pav," she said.

Chef's book comes with explosive ending

Martin Benn is one of Sydney's best chefs. His restaurant Sepia was named Restaurant of the Year in the Herald's 2015 Good Food Guide. He has three hats in the GFG. He worked for many years for Tetsuya and now he has gone into the coffee table book trade.

His modestly titled tome, Sepia: The Cuisine of Martin Benn, comes out next month and traces his rise from London's Oak Room to the heights of Sydney's experimental cuisine, the odyssey interspersed with 66 of his most exciting dishes, many in the popular molecular gastronomy or food with air style.

It may also be the first Australian cook book that comes with a HAZCHEM warning.

"Always follow proper safety procedures working with liquid nitrogen," Benn warns. "...avoid splashing nitrogen on your body and take particular care of your eyes. Never consume liquid nitrogen directly."

The warning may be too late for some Benn aficionados. The chef does not issue the HAZCHEM warning until the last of his 292 pages.

Cazneaux – Who?

The quintessential Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux lived for much of his life at 24 Dudley Street, Roseville. He and his wife Winifred raised six children within its walls while he took the iconic photographs of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, surfing, Sydney and the "Cazneaux tree" near Wilpena Pound that showed Australians a new way of looking at their land. The house is on the market for $1.9 million plus. The agents, Chadwick Real Estate, are not bothering to tell potential buyers of its significance.

Tears at ABC as talents depart

And so farewell, then, Sean Dorney, Jim Middleton, Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton and a host of other lesser-known ABC mortals.

The departing talent are putting on a happy face about their years at Auntie but behind the scenes there are tears and teeth gnashing as the ABC sheds staff, deep sixes programs such as At the Movies, axes the Australia Network and turns international services into "rip-and-read" affairs to meet budget cuts.

Fears are also afoot as the ABC board meets on Monday to discuss swinging the axe and staff talk of the Eugene Goossens Hall at the Ultimo headquarters being booked in the following days so managing director Mark Scott can deliver the bad news to a mass rally.

The ABC lost $120 million in the budget and optimistic staff are saying a further $50 million cut will have 500 jobs eliminated and almost everything apart from news outsourced. Board member Fiona Stanley defended the ABC and tore into the Murdoch press's incessant bias allegation.

Now the bravely outspoken broadcaster Quentin Dempster says the cuts will be punitive and ideological. "What's most confronting is to see the testicular hold Rupert now has on Tony [Abbott]," Dempster said. "I appeal to the Prime Minister to demonstrate to the Australian people that he's his own man and not a creature of Rupert Murdoch."