Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has re-launched his verbal war against his successor Malcolm Turnbull, with obvious relish.
In recent speeches, Abbott criticised leaked internal Liberal Party moves to bring forward a bill for marriage equality; called for an end to all new spending except for national security and infrastructure; and advocated freezing the country's 鈥 already inadequate 鈥 renewable energy target.
Here鈥檚 my two cents worth on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull鈥檚 leaked impersonation of US President Donald Trump.
If you are prime minister and you are going to do a private impersonation of Trump you could pick a better occasion than the Parliamentary Mid-Winter Ball which is packed with drunken politicians, journos and political advisers. So it is a mighty stretch to call it a leak.
However, if you are a conservative, hollow-man prime minister, down in the polls, the 鈥渓eak鈥 of a recording of the said impersonation might be a welcome circuit breaker.
On May 30, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the first of the 鈥渃oalition of the willing鈥 to declare he would support US President Donald Trump鈥檚 request for more occupying troops in Afghanistan. Sydney Stop the War Coalition issued this statement which is abridged below.
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Sydney Stop the War Coalition opposes the Turnbull Coalition government鈥檚 decision to take up US President Donald Trump鈥檚 request and send more Australian troops to the quagmire in Afghanistan.
As the embers cooled in the debris of US President Donald Trump鈥檚 59 Tomahawk missiles fired at Syria, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered an immigration crackdown that includes a new US-style patriot test for those seeking Australian citizenship and the scrapping of 457 foreign worker visas.
US President Donald Trump sent his vice-president Mike Pence on a beat-the-drums-of-war Asia-Pacific tour and even before Pence got to Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull started talking Trumplish.
He regurgitated Trump's jingoistic riffs with near word-for-word precision: 鈥淎ustralia and Australians first鈥, 鈥淎ustralian values鈥.
US President Donald Trump鈥檚 threat to unleash a new nuclear war should not be dismissed as the ravings of an unhinged individual. He may be that, but he has also shown that he is prepared to start a new war and ratchet up old ones.
The US鈥檚 missile attack on a Syrian government air base on April 7 and its decision to drop an 11-ton GBU-43/B (or MOAB, Mother Of All Bombs), the world鈥檚 biggest non-nuclear bomb, on Afghanistan on April 13 is proof of that.
President Ashraf Ghani鈥檚 first visit to Australia prompted a sizable protest on April 3 among the Australian Hazara community amid claims of institutional discrimination against Hazaras in Afghanistan.
Numbering thousands, peaceful protesters gathered from across the country and demanded from the Afghan President equality, fair distribution of resources, and an end to governmental discrimination.
According to federal government ministers, Medicare is unsustainable. The aged pension is also unsustainable. The NDIS is unsustainable. Many other social services are unsustainable. However, billions of dollars of tax cuts to big Australian companies are perfectly sustainable.
In the short term, the government will be stealing $5.2 billion from the public purse and handing it over in the form of tax cuts to companies with an annual turnover of up to $50 million. In the medium term the cuts go further and will cost $24 billion.
There鈥檚 a new bogey man on the block.
It is credited with the rise of brazenly crude figures such as Donald Trump and Pauline Hanson. It is behind outrageous-sounding propositions like Safe Schools, anti-discrimination laws and gender equality. It is running around Melbourne, putting a tiny skirt on the little figure on traffic lights.
In this increasingly polarised political climate, political correctness has emerged as the new villain.
Condemning Donald Trump鈥檚 cruel bigotry is easy 鈥 well, OK, maybe not for the Australian government, but for actual human beings with functioning consciences.
Then again, our country is so screwed up, our government鈥檚 response to the rise of the most extreme racist authoritarian president in US history is to ask him if he鈥檚 still ok to take desperate asylum seekers we won鈥檛 help, coz we are sick of the expense of torturing them in isolated hellholes.
The world has reacted in anger, solidarity and protest to US President Donald Trump鈥檚 Muslim immigration ban.
Taxi drivers have gone on strike, major corporations such as Google are condemning it and protests continue at airports across the US.
Germany鈥檚 Angela Merkel and Britain鈥檚 Theresa May, not known as advocates for human rights, are speaking up in opposition.
In a coordinated effort on United Nations Day on October 24, the Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG) made long-overdue citizens鈥 arrests of some of the biggest climate criminals in the land.
鈥淭he Great NannArrest鈥 involved citizen鈥檚 arrests of MPs, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his eastern Sydney electorate office.
When they found the PM missing in action at his Edgecliff office, they arrested another Malcolm 鈥 a man wearing a mask.