This is no time for partisan rage |
Earlier this month, when contemplating what to write for a year-end column, I wanted to depart from the journalistic tradition of casting an eye over the past 12 months in an attempt to dissect the pivotal moments and underlying themes. The plan, instead, was to write a first draft of non-history: the things that did not happen in 2025.
We are not in the midst of a global recession, or worse still, a depression. That was the fear after Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff shock when markets plummeted before eventually rebounding in one of the strongest six-month rallies of the past 75 years. Nor have we yet seen a full-blown constitutional crisis, despite Trump’s flagrant disregard for the lower federal courts and his trashing of presidential norms – for which the demolition of the East Wing of the White House became instantly metaphoric.
A man mourns during a menorah lighting ceremony on December 16 at the floral memorial for victims of the Bondi Beach attack.Credit: AP
Here at home, the federal election did not, as was widely predicted, follow the anti-incumbency trend set in 2024 when voters had turfed out so many sitting governments. We do not have a hung parliament. Labor won easily, albeit in a loveless landslide. Peter Dutton is no longer the member for Dickson, let alone enjoying his first Christmas at Kirribilli House.
AUKUS was not torpedoed. Instead, the US commander-in-chief ordered “full steam ahead”. Here, something else which did not happen for the first eight months of the Trump presidency, a face-to-face White House meeting, worked to Anthony Albanese’s advantage. China, by announcing export restrictions on rare earth minerals, created a problem for the United States, which the Australians came shovel-ready to solve. Like the delay to the election caused by Cyclone Alfred – a non-cyclone, as it turned out, which acted as a circuit-breaker for a beleaguered government – it embellished the narrative that Albanese is an unusually lucky prime minister. That trope, I suspect, will never appear in print again.
Now, after the horror of Bondi, when two gunmen opened fire, killing 15 people, a column about what did not happen takes on a wholly different........