Turnbull impersonates Trump
Long before the Mid-Winter Ball became the headline event in Canberra's social calendar, there used to be an end-of-year press gallery dinner.
Unlike the ball, it was a relatively low key event - no spouses, staffers, log rollers, rent seekers or lobbyists allowed.
Other than the guest speaker, politicians were not invited either. The guest spoke and it was strictly off the record.
The event began to lose its clout after 1990 when Paul Keating's description of himself as the Placido Domingo of Australian politics was leaked and reported in the Sunday tabloids by Richard Farmer and on the news that night by Laurie Oakes.
Both gents made it a habit to avoid off-the-record events so once the contents "leaked" they were not bound by convention and could report them.
After that, guest speakers become increasingly cautious and eventually the press gallery dinner fizzled and died, consumed by the ball which began at the start of this century.
With Malcolm Turnbull's ball speech, in which he lampooned himself using Donald Trump as the measuring stick, everyone got their knickers in a twist. But it was just Oakes doing as he had often done before.
Whereas the dinner was a tightly guarded affair and held before the advent of mobile phones, there is not a hope in hell that the ball speeches ever remain confidential.
Extracts have been reported before. Kevin Rudd's miserable spray at the mining community, including a torturous "ratf--ker" routine, just before he lost the leadership in 2010, and Julia Gillard invoking the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones to describe the state of affairs in Labor just before her downfall spring to mind.
When both leaders write their speeches, they do on the assumption that despite the rules, it will leak. Only an idiot would think otherwise.
Moreover, as the rentseekers and politicians who dominate the ball crowd these days are not bound by off-the-record, a self-regulated convention which applies only to journalists and even then is interpreted differently depending on the individual.
The only people who seemed upset at Turnbull's routine were the army of columnists at one newspaper, none of who witnessed the speech in its entirety or context, but nonetheless scrambled to decry it as some hideous misstep. They were more upset than the US government which laughed it off via a statement issued by the embassy.
As the AFR Weekend's Washington Correspondent John Kehoe reported, Trump has repeatedly scolded Saturday Night Live star Alec Baldwin for mockingly impersonating him, but apparently the White House so far hasn't conveyed similar fury about Malcolm Turnbull's light-hearted imitation of the US President.
James Carafano, a conservative who was a member of the President's transition team for the State Department post the election, said the US-Australian strategic relationship was one of the strongest bonds in the world and the "notion that any trivial slight could affect that is beyond laughable".
"Trump has been mocked by professionals. He has endured much worse. Anyone that believes he is thin-skinned enough to let something like this get in the way of the serious business of governance doesn't know Trump," Mr Carafano said.
Australia's ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, said in Washington on Thursday afternoon (Friday AEST) there was "no reaction that I'm aware of" from the close security and economic ally.
The ball is similar to the White House Correspondent's dinner. That was boycotted by Trump who hates the press but it is an on-the-record event in which the President goes for laughs.
George W Bush once mocked his own claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and took with good humour impersonations of himself, Barack Obama was always a wiling participant.
The only error with the Canberra event is it is off the record.
That lends the speeches an element of sinister they do not deserve. Turnbull was hilarious on Wednesday night, Shorten fizzed but has stolen the show in years past.
Let the voters see them taking the mickey out of themselves, cracking jokes based on their own flaws and fallabilities.
It will make them more likeable. And do it before this country loses its sense of humour entirely.
