Comment

This week, the credentials of the Albanese government to manage the economy came under their most intense challenge since Labor was first elected almost four years ago.

My Australian story starts with a photo. It is a photo of a man with a face hitherto unseen in the world. The bearded man wears a long winter coat, collared shirt and stylish hat. In his right hand he holds a stone axe. He is standing next to a ceremonial scarred tree stump.

The implosion over hate laws is a bad start to the Coalition’s new year and for supporters of good government. The situation is existential, but the outcome is not preordained. Liberals and Nationals have agency to affect the outcome. History suggests they can succeed.

The world as we know it is changing fast. It is not at all clear what the seating arrangements will be or who will be leading the opposition when parliament resumes next Tuesday.

A most important national challenge to all involved in our political process – especially government, opposition and media – is to restore social cohesion.

This is the season for resolutions – the time when many of us commit to eating better, exercising more and getting off our phones. Treasurer Jim Chalmers should make a different kind of resolution: it’s Australia’s economy that needs to get into shape.

We now have schools that are no longer fit for purpose, where you can hear the classrooms on either side all day long, with doors that don’t shut, windows that don’t open, ancient toilets and strings of demountables.

Deep dysfunction on the conservative side of politics has led to the end of the federal Coalition after the Nationals embarrassed the Liberals over the Albanese government’s hate speech bill.

It is difficult to know which numbers are the more appalling, the very large ones or the ones that are tragically small. Is it the scale of the destruction of threatened species habitat approved by the Albanese government, or is it the fact that the surviving population of night parrots could be counted by most children under 10?

New York is my escape. I come here each January to see in the new year. Over time it has become a ritual. I vanish here. I escape myself as much as anything else. This is New York’s gift: loneliness.