Like barkers out the front of two competing rug shops, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese were in Western Sydney on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The corpse of the 46th parliament was barely cold, with the election still to be called, yet here they were doing the hard sell. Morrison in Penrith in the seat of Lindsay, hawking the government's economic record, Albanese in Parramatta, introducing parachuted poster-boy candidate Andrew Charlton while spruiking his aged care plan.
It seemed fitting we saw off the parliament with a blast of icy wind that dropped temperatures, whipped up seas and had us rummaging for last winter's sweaters. The term of the 46th parliament was one of ruined summers, either scorched by drought, burnt by fire, frozen by lockdown, or drowned by flood. A term of evacuations, cancelled Christmases, supply shortages and uncertainty.
It seemed fitting, too, to have address our parliament on its last sitting day Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, a beacon of leadership and courage in his nation's darkest hours. Someone who knows all about holding a hose.
Zelensky asked for some of our Bushmaster vehicles. We saw them in service in Iraq and Afghanistan and, more recently during the fires and floods. The government has agreed to send some but how many remained a little unclear.
We might be seeing off the parliament but we won't be saying goodbye to politics. Oh, no; that's just getting started. A few days ago, May 14 seemed like the most likely date but the PM made it clear he wouldn't be rushed to Government House. The clock is ticking though, and the latest the election can be held is May 21.
Between now and then, we're in for a lot of noise and most of it will be unpleasant. There'll be hard hats, hi-vis and photo opps, pledges, promises and pork, and numpties nodding in the background.
It will swamp your TV screens, your radio, your social media feeds.
But, hey, that's democracy. Loud, messy, and irritating, but at least we get to choose. For that, it's all worth it (but pollies, tone down the high-viz, it just makes you look silly).
THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Morrison govt cancels country's only armed drones project
- Easter holiday makers forcing flood victims out of crisis accommodation
- Regional values growing three times faster than cities: CoreLogic
- Budget housing policy to add thousands more in interest payments
- Bitter irony: Ag Minister gets powers to veto farm carbon projects
- Federal Liberal intervention in NSW betrays Menzies' principles
- COVID-19 pandemic hits child development
- Meat boss named as Vic helicopter victim