In the chaotic dying days of 2024’s final parliamentary sitting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reverted to a role he played in Julia Gillard’s government.

He personally intervened in the wrangling and deal-making as the government battled to get as much as possible of Labor’s legislation passed.

The end of a parliamentary year is usually a mess. But 2024’s finale was beyond bad. A prime minister who likes to claim he runs an orderly government found himself presiding over a shambles, in which process was thrown to the winds and quick fixes and expedient capitulations became the order of the day.

Senators might have anticipated Wednesday’s suspension of the volcanic Lidia Thorpe, the Indigenous independent who last year defected from the Greens, would remove one distraction in a head-spinning week. Instead, it added a wild element to Thursday, when Thorpe shouted into the chamber from the press gallery: “Free, free Palestine. From the river to the sea”. Extra security guards were deployed to prevent a repeat.

Amid the rush, senators did take time out on Thursday to pay generous tributes to popular Senate opposition leader Simon Birmingham, after his surprise announcement he’ll leave politics at the election for the commercial world.

The week’s political mayhem delivered a big and unexpected win for Treasurer Jim Chalmers, but a major defeat for Special Minister of State Don Farrell.

After the Liberals in September refused to support legislation to split the Reserve Bank board and establish a special board to set interest rates, the plan appeared dead. But a late........

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