The festive season is a time for lists. Shopping lists. Christmas card lists. (Of course I still send Christmas cards.) Lists of New Year’s resolutions. And, for newspapers, lists of the best (and worst) of the past year. There isn’t any objectivity about them. There isn’t meant to be. They unapologetically reflect the interests, sympathies and prejudices of the compiler. That’s what makes them fun. Here are 10 things that stood out for me in 2024.

On my list, for better or worse: Justice Michael Lee, Donald Trump, James Paterson, Don Farrell and Jacqui Lambie.Credit: Graphic: Monique Westermann

1. Best performance by a minister. Don Farrell. Nicknamed The Godfather, the minister for trade flies below the radar. A consummate dealmaker and political fixer, he is the quiet achiever among a cabinet of high-profile mediocrities. In a government dominated by Labor’s Left, Farrell owes his power to his control of the right-wing shop assistants’ union (the “shoppies”). As a social conservative, he would give John Howard a run for his money. Farrell is emblematic of an older Labor Party – a living reminder of the days when Labor politicians were real working people, not apparatchiks, activists and ambulance-chasers. Also the deputy Senate leader, his negotiating skill makes him much better at winning over difficult crossbenchers than the famously rude Penny Wong.

2. Best performance by a shadow minister. James Paterson. Elected to the Senate in 2016 aged just 28, the Liberal Party’s youngest-ever senator soon lived down the view that he was too young for the job. First as chairman of parliament’s intelligence committee during the Morrison government, then as shadow minister for home affairs, he quickly mastered the national security brief. Paterson’s indefatigable presence in the media, where every answer is word-perfect, as well as his lethal performances in Senate estimates have won him a deserved reputation as a baby-faced political killer.

Jacqui Lambie in the Senate in........

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