2025, a year best to forget? We never will |
The year 2025 will be forever defined in our history by the horror of December 14. But as it ends in sorrow, this is the time to reflect on all the other things for which 2025 will also be remembered. Here is my pastiche of a year none of us will forget, even if we wish we could.
2025: A year to forget? Back row: Murray Watt; James Paterson; Matt Canavan; Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Middle: Trump; Putin; Sanae Takaichi. Bottom: Albanese; Troy Bramston’s book cover; Sarah Hanson-Young; It’s time 50th Anniversary.Credit: Benke
Most shameful day – December 14: Why did it take the slaughter of 15 innocent souls to awaken the government to the magnitude of the danger about which Jewish Australians have been warning, with ever-greater urgency, ever since the pogrom of October 7, 2023? Real leadership required more from Anthony Albanese than formulaic condemnations of antisemitism and words of sorrow for the victims. His stubborn refusal to hold the royal commission for which there is such overwhelming demand underlines the inadequacy of his response.
Best performance by a minister – Murray Watt: The Queensland senator, promoted after the election to the difficult environment portfolio, emerged this year as cabinet’s best fixer. His success in landing a last-minute deal with the Greens to secure the government’s environment legislation was the latest of several tricky issues he has handled with skill. With the reputations of the other two Left faction ministers in the Senate, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher, so diminished by revelations of their ugly role in falsely maligning former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds (about which more is likely to be revealed next year in Reynolds’ action against the Commonwealth), Watt’s future looks bright.
Best performance by an opposition minister – James Paterson: Yet again this year, Paterson was the Coalition’s most effective voice. Alone among his colleagues, he emerged from the catastrophic Liberal campaign........