It was the year a freshly recycled Liberal leader, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, took his Coalition to an election and suffered a near fatal gutser.
Herewith are some of the awards for achievements – both above and mostly below the call of political duty in 2016.
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Morning wishes, afternoon smears
The spirit of Christmas doesn't last long in parliament, as party leaders exchange best wishes...then insults.
Honey I Shrunk the Government Award: Malcolm Turnbull
Turnbull blew Tony Abbott away in the belief only he could win the 2016 election. Abbott had won in 2013 with an enormous majority – 90 Coalition seats to Labor's 55.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull fronts the media the day after the election. Photo: Andrew Meares
Turnbull started 2016 slowly, flirted with big tax reforms before dropping them, reversed position on a number of what were thought to be his key principles and meandered through an election campaign that stretched for 55 days.
Late on election night, no one could tell whether the government could continue. The wash-up: the Coalition held a majority of precisely one seat in the House of Representatives. And the Senate was even less manageable than before.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten during Labor's election night function. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Truthiness in Action Award, sponsored by Medicare: Bill Shorten
Shorten and his Labor team went hard on promising to inject billions into health, and topped up its campaign with a full-blown scare. Australians were bombarded with frightening phone calls warning them the Coalition was going to privatise and destroy Medicare. There was no evidence of any such plan. Malcolm Turnbull and his colleagues damned it as a lie. Shorten and Labor kept right on, as if they were road-testing what would become known during the Trump campaign for the US Presidency as the "post-truth" era. It almost won Shorten the election.
Same-sex marriage advocates – Coalition MP Warren Entsch and Labor's Terri Butler – during more optimistic times in 2015. Photo: Andrew Meares
We Will Decide Who Marries in this Country and the Manner in which They Won't be Married Award: Politicians from all sides
Malcolm Turnbull was initially opposed to a plebiscite on gay marriage, a policy bequeathed him by Abbott and conservative Coalition ministers. He ended up championing the idea, declaring it to be the only way Australia would get same-sex marriage. The Greens, gay marriage activists and eventually Labor decided a plebiscite would give vent to ugly views. It was voted down in the Parliament. Same sex marriage was shelved for at least three years. Congratulations all.
Kevin Rudd and Clive Palmer Photo: Stefan Postles
The Biggest Loser Award – A Queensland double: Kevin Rudd. Shared with Clive Palmer
Kevin Rudd imagined Malcolm Turnbull would back his bid for secretary-general of the UN. He was wrong. Rudd complained loudly that he'd been double crossed. This surprised no one. Fellow Queenslander Clive Palmer, having lost almost all his Palmer United Party senators, found himself in financial strife when his Queensland Nickel company went into administration. With investigators and creditors circling and his private planes grounded, he chose not to recontest his seat of Fairfax. He subsequently went on a diet and lost 45 kilograms.
One Nation senators Brian Burston, Malcolm Roberts, Pauline Hanson and Rod Culleton. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
The I'm Back and Look Who I've Brung With Me Award: Pauline Hanson
The last time Hanson was in parliament was 20 years ago, when she was One Nation's lone voice in the House of Representatives and feared Australia was being "swamped with Asians". This time she is in the Senate, hollering about "Muslims swamping Australia" and has brought three fellow One Nation senators with her. There's Malcolm Roberts, who got 77 first-preference personal votes and gives a whole new meaning to climate change denial. There's Rod Culleton, from WA, who's battling in the High Court to remain a senator having once been found guilty of larceny of a $7.50 truck key, the conviction since annulled. And there's the quiet one, Brian Burston, former architectural design consultant and higher education teacher. Quite a voting bloc, assuming Hanson can keep her troops together. Culleton has already voted against her wishes.
Senator David Leyonhjelm has pushed hard to allow the sale of the Adler 8-shell shotgun. Photo: Lateline / ABC News
Marketing Coup of the Year Award: Adler Shotguns
An unremarkable Turkish-made shotgun, the Adler gained instant fame and huge numbers of orders when academics and gun-control activists claimed it was virtually a semi-automatic weapon. It wasn't. It works by lever action – a 19th century invention – and one of its models can fire eight shells (one in the spout and seven in a magazine) in fairly rapid succession. Libertarian senator David Leyonhjelm championed it, farmers wanted it for vermin eradication, gun-control proponents eulogised John Howard's gun laws and a national brawl erupted. The eight-shot remains banned, but the five-shot model, deemed OK, is selling strongly.
Senator Derryn Hinch in the press gallery at Parliament House earlier this week. Photo: Andrew Meares
Greatest Retirement Job in the World Award: Derryn Hinch
At 72, armed with a new liver and his plan for a public register of sex offenders, Hinch set off on a 12,000-kilometre trip in a motorhome and ended up a senator, despite having previously refused to vote. His last act of the year was to deny the government and Australia's farmers a compromise on the controversial backpackers' tax. He won much publicity, not much of it positive. The old Hinch, having retired from the media, was back and from all indications, loving it.
NXT senators Skye Kakoschke-Moore, Nick Xenophon and Stirling Griff address the media. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Making South Australia Great Again Award: Nick Xenophon
Modestly naming his new party the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), the committed Adelaide populist scared hell out of federal Liberals by fielding candidates in every South Australian lower house seat and declaring he was motivated by "voter disillusionment". The Turnbull Government was so spooked it announced a $50 billion submarine building project for Adelaide. NXT won three Senate seats (including Xenophon's), prompting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to appoint senior South Australian Liberal Christopher Pyne as Defence Industry Minister to ensure nothing went wrong with the subs. Xenophon has since applied the screws over Murray River flows to his state and in forcing government contracts to prefer Australian-made goods.
More jobs in his electorate: the agency will move to Armidale, where Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is local MP. Photo: Andrew Meares
Get Some Pork on Your Fork Award for Conspicuous Pork Barrelling: Barnaby Joyce
The National Party Leader, under challenge for his seat from former Independent MP Tony Windsor during the federal election, announced 175 public servants employed within the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority would be forcibly moved from Canberra to Armidale, in northern NSW.
Armidale happens to be in the heart of the Barnaby Joyce's own electorate. Pork barrelling? Barnaby likes the term, because it suggests a politician is "delivering too much".
"Once you hear that, you know you're going all right – it's a good sign," he declared during the campaign. When the votes came in, Barnaby had left Tony Windsor in his dust.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott winks when leaving question time. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Down the End of Lonely Street at Heartbreak Hotel Award: Tony Abbott
The judges were so moved by Abbott's plaintive entreaties for recognition they felt the least they could do was create a special award category. "The poor fellow actually believes he will get a comeback," the chief judge's citation says. "All we could think of was that old thing about 'Elvis has left the building' that was always used to persuade the crowd there'd be no encore. So, you know, by extension. Anyway, it's almost Christmas. Gotta be kind."
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