Comment

I’ve had the privileged heartbreak of being with two loved ones at the end of their lives. When my father died a little over five years ago, it was in a dedicated palliative care ward in a regional private hospital.

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.

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.

This is not Australia. I say that over and over again, yet the images on my television screen are telling me it is. This is Bondi Beach. This is summer. This is music and surfing and food and laughter. This is a place of strangers in all our diversity who call ourselves a nation.

Australians often seem rather uneasy about attempting to examine the range and depth of their religious beliefs. Like most people, other than fundamentalists, I feel shifty and inconclusive, because of a deep uncertainty about what I believe.

Albanese is convinced Australians want the nation to come together at a time like this. He says we will not allow the country to be divided, because that is what the terrorists seek. Unlike in previous disasters … the opposition and its supporters broke ranks with the government and blamed the prime minister for the atrocity.

What is the most significant news story of the past couple of weeks? Trump’s Gaza deal? The attack on a British synagogue? Closer to home, is it Andrew Hastie’s political manoeuvrings? … Certainly, those stories have made the headlines. Tucked away in one newspaper, though, was a story that may define the future of humanity. This story will eventually touch every one of us, wherever we live, whatever our faith or culture.