Editorial

For very close to three years, until Scott Morrison beat Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal leadership, Tony Abbott had been responsible for the worst government in Australia’s history. Morrison was worse, of course, uniquely so, a man with eight feet in a world full of rakes, but Abbott had his own special kind of appalling. He governed vindictively. He fought progress. He made an enemy of the future and found new and boorish ways to prosecute that sad fight.

It took a little over six hours for Anthony Albanese to rule it out entirely. That is roughly the length of his nerve. “I have no plans to do it,” the prime minister said. “It’s not our policy.”

Last month, when Zali Steggall accused Peter Dutton of racism, Sky News reported that the opposition leader was seeking legal advice. Presumably he chose not to pursue it. Truth is one of the few solid defences available under defamation law.

On the playground, it is the final and most pathetic offer. It is the bargain of the uninvited schoolboy, the boy who gets carsick and smells of mandarin skins, made when there is nothing really to give: I’ll be your best friend.

The night Bill Shorten lost, the room where he was standing tasted of cigarette smoke and sour cheesecake. The lights burnt the wrong colour. At the podium, he said he was “proud we argued for what was right, not what was easy”.

There is no logic to this statistical closet. No one in the queer community is asking for it – in fact, they are asking for its opposite. All it does is abandon another part of society to Labor’s cowardice.

The last words Linda Burney spoke in the House of Representatives were in Wiradjuri, the language of her people. “I am proud to be Wiradjuri,” she said. “This has been a great journey. Thank you. It’s been an honour. We will make progress when we all work together. We have a strong and bright future.”

Peter Dutton knows what he is doing. He is a man without prominent features, except this one: he will always and happily exploit race for political gain.

Linda Reynolds admits she was angry when she called Brittany Higgins a lying cow. “It was just something I said to express frustration about what she was saying … It represented my frustration.” She was angry when she sent a text message to Bruce Lehrmann’s defence lawyer, making light of a dress Higgins wore to court.

Among 222 recommendations, the commission proposed there be a minister for disability inclusion and a department created to focus on disability. This week, the government announced there would be neither.