Comment

The Liberal Party of Australia is now a LINO party: Liberal In Name Only. It’s a fitting acronym. After all, lino was Australia’s favourite floor covering in the 1950s … After Labor’s unexpected election loss, our renewal may be found in an unlikely spot – welcoming not only those inspired by egalitarianism, but also those motivated by social liberalism.

Many at the time saw Australia’s response to the shooting down of MH17 as evidence of Tony Abbott’s potential statesmanship. History has shown it to be a triumph of Julie Bishop’s diplomacy. And it remains a vital reminder of the role organisations such as the United Nations can, and should, still play in our grand bargain.

If Trivago is looking for a new face for its omnipresent ads, it need look no further than Bridget McKenzie. The Nationals deputy leader knows a thing or two about hotels, having just received Canberra’s coveted award – Most Travel Allowances of the Year – by charging taxpayers $1400 a week to stay in hotels at least three out of five nights last year. Congratulations, Senator. Your prize is one Bronwyn Bishop taxpayer-funded helicopter ride to a Sky News studio of your choice.

The tax cuts impasse between the government and the opposition has opened the way for a familiar play from the senate crossbench. As Scott Morrison was basking in the warmth of a holiday in Fiji, it was the Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick who was taking full advantage of a moment in the sun.

It is a peculiar fact that during the same period the number of practising Christians went into sharp decline, the church grew to be larger than it has ever been. Proportionally fewer Australians now attend worship than at any other time in history, and yet never have so many used Christian services. This is a paradox directly relevant to the ‘religious freedom’ debate. The policy agenda being promoted by emboldened activists would not only negatively affect LGBTQIA people, it would impact everyone.

The first missive from Sally McManus was brief. So veiled in its construction, the statement obscured the deeper issue with Setka. And in pushing to expel the union boss from the Labor Party, Anthony Albanese skirted the detail entirely.

Senior members of the Commonwealth’s cop squad have been working overtime on coming up with fresh meanings for the phrase “national security”. To paraphrase Humpty Dumpty, it really means just what the government chooses it to mean, neither more nor less. Certainly it covers things such as bugging the Timor-Leste ministerial offices, or soldiers shooting the wrong people in Afghanistan, or plans by spooky public servants to spy on the entire population. All of that comes under the Humpty Dumpty definition, which really has nothing to do with national security at all, but more to do with government embarrassment.

Scott Morrison is assiduously doing nothing much of consequence. In fact, this week he appeared to have taken a leaf out of the opposition leader’s book and, like Anthony Albanese, is doing a lot of listening. He has apparently decided this is the safest way of dealing with the press freedom brouhaha that has engulfed his government since its unexpected return to power.

The Australian Federal Police raids on the offices of the ABC and the home of a News Corp journalist keep being described as ‘unprecedented’. They are certainly a degeneration, though these goonish interventions have always been there. Only their targets and locations have changed. An unbroken chain of raids, prosecutions, bannings, destructions, libel suits, intimidation and blacklistings drags its way through our history, all the way to the early colony.

It is important to remember that these stories did not risk national security. They invited criticism, not danger. The raids on the ABC and the home of a News Corp reporter were about government embarrassment.