Going by the polls, many voters seem to have concluded the PM is not quite the inspiring leader they were led to believe by media confidantes who found him so admirable before last September's coup. There is one thing in his favour, however: Bill Shorten

Pity those poor Americans in this presidential election year. In one corner, the bizarre figure of Donald Trump. In the other, the woman who excused her husband's sexual predations, achieved nothing in the Senate and made cowardice her guide as Secretary of State. Some choice, eh?

I'm wasting my time, I know, so forgive this attempt to attempt to present the folly of socialist nostrums. Yes, it's a quixotic bid to lead the benighted unto the light, but our politicians won't do it -- not even the party allegedly favouring the magic of markets -- so someone has to, if only for the record

After eight years of alienating allies, abrogating leadership, eschewing hard decisions and  spuriously explaining away Islamic outrages, all that remains to be done is a final spectacle to capture the spirit of his administration: a Rose Garden reception and apology for Gitmo's liberated inmates

He has embedded himself deep within the Liberal source code, yet the current PM is loathed by more than a few as an invasive and destructive presence. This explains conservatives' dark mutterings about a spell in opposition being one way to cleanse and re-format the party's hard drive

Town planners have never seen anything quite so beautiful as a light-rail system, which helps to explain the mass felling of majestic fig trees along one of Sydney's main thoroughfares. It is past time to restore beauty to our streets and cityscapes

Dismissed by the Liberal Party's ascendant Labor-lite faction as thick and woolly, restive conservatives have long memories to go with their principles. They're waiting and watching and ready when the time is right to make their move, certainly at the ballot box and, quite possibly, via other means

Why not just throw in the towel, admit defeat and make 2016 the year that Australia acknowledges, as 55 Liberals recently did, that the left has won and we're all on the road to an alternatively powered future, where excuses and lots of free stuff are the birthright of all? Here, a New Year agenda

We could begin by conceding there is a spending problem and put the focus on winnowing those bountiful fields of government waste, but a PM bent on buying the electorate's affection would never, ever countenance that