OUR beauty editor LIBBY HILL agreed to put her face on the line when she was invited to experience the latest in laser treatments. How did it feel? Her report starts on Page 22.
Elsewhere, Kevin Rudd’s biographer ROBERT MACKLIN says, come what may, the former PM hasn’t changed, columnist MICHAEL MOORE explains why means testing the private health insurance rebate is good for the country’s economic health and MARK PARTON reckons this summer’s been a breeze.

OUR columnists are a little rowdy this week – MICHAEL MOORE takes the Opposition Leader to task for timesheet lapses in his office, TIM GAVEL is unhappy at the intrusion of television in sport, CATHERINE CARTER gets stuck into the priorities of the ACT Government and gadfly ROBERT MACKLIN has misgivings about the man who would be the next US President.

THE sudoku is hard, there’s a cockatoo judging the Bald Archys and the gardening writer’s gaga over the centenary flower – has the world gone mad this week? More evidence: Mum in the City’s got a masochistic streak for high high heels and we’ve a health&fitness page piece about the benefits of men hugging other men. There’s serious stuff, too, from sensible writers MICHAEL MOORE, HELEN MUSA, FREYLA FERGUSON, LIBBY HILL and columnist LISA RIDGLEY.

A BLUE bridge, rare orchids, a corner for poets, a three-page spread of social photos… and if none of that curls your toes, LISA RIDGLEY is back with her Canberra Confidential column; MICHAEL MOORE thinks the politics of pokies is putting the Prime Minister at risk; DON AITKIN has a serve at tennis obsessives and gardening writer CEDRIC BRYANT looks at steps and walls. We’re all about Canberra every week.

LAZY, disrespectful, selfish… that’s a common view of Generation Y, but FREYLA FERGUSON talks to a couple of successful young people who turn the stereotype on its head. Also this week, ROBERT MACKLIN spells out how and when Kevin Rudd will make his second run at The Lodge, LIBBY HILL discovers the superpowers of some woolly heroes called trauma teddies and CEDRIC BRYANT says it’s time to start pruning the garden.

HAPPY New Year! Ours is an eclectic start, with an edition drawn from all sorts of inspiration. Passionate SAM WONG, the cover subject, is a splendid case in point. So is LUKE TRIFFETT, who gives us an insight into the job of digging graves at Gungahlin. And so too SUSANNAH BAYES-MORTON, the young Canberra star of the upcoming TV series “Straits”. ANNA PROSSER is inspired about the history of her home in Forrest, as gardening writer CEDRIC BRYANT is about planting wattles. The Chinese New Year horoscope is certainly full of inspiration.