A long week is over

It’s been an unexpectedly long week. Usually, the first days of a parliamentary break are a time of relative stillness. Everybody sighs, slowly, and draws breath again. Hostilities, while not suspended, are muffled.

Not this week.

And let’s be honest: I’ve forced you to read a lot of words. Turns out that when it comes to leadership turmoil, I’ve got a lot to get off my chest. Consider it my own public therapy session. Thank you for playing your role. (But please don’t assume it’s over.)

Nothing of lasting political significance happened today. Malcolm Turnbull addressed a group of schoolchildren. Despite the risks of having one’s back to an audience expert in the art of paper-plane construction, he proceeded to draw, without notable interruption, a serviceable diagram of Snowy Hydro 2.0.

He also told the kids about his close relationship with his father, and his father’s death in a plane crash at far too young an age. Turnbull spoke with lucidity and frankness, and displayed a quiet emotion. The kids were mesmerised.

It was a meaningful moment in itself – I recommend watching it if you can. It was also a reminder of Turnbull at his best, when he comes across as honest and thoughtful and plainly eloquent – something that happened more often in the first few days of his prime ministership, when he had not been forced into the defensiveness that troubles so many prime ministers. And it should serve as a reminder to us all, in a week marked by fairly petty squabbling over ill-advised remarks a slightly tipsy bloke made at a closed event, that politicians live in the same messy world as the rest of us.

We need that reminder, because most of the time there is an odd distance between us and our representatives. “Odd”, I say, because that distance tends to distort perceptions. We blame politicians for strange things, things that none of us would bat a single eyelid at in the lives of people we know; at the same time we frequently give them passes on shocking moral failings, in bland acknowledgement of the “complexities of governing”, or some other hackneyed phrase.

Anyway, these things bear thinking about – both by us and by the representatives themselves. Hopefully, as this week’s circus moves on, there will be time for that.

Have a good weekend.

In other news

• Liberal turmoil: Ministers urge Abbott to stop “rewriting history”. Albo says (in a nice way) Christopher Pyne shouldn’t have apologised [$]. Paula Matthewson has a really interesting piece on the shift in Liberal rhetoric [$]. David Crowe on Abbott’s cowardice (and Turnbull’s) [$]. Michelle Grattan looks at the party’s options. Jacob Greber has some sharp words [$] for Abbott. Jacqueline Maley says Turnbull could use marriage to save his prime ministership. Sarah Martin says Turnbull needs the base and the centre. Andrew Probyn speculates on Campbell Newman’s game. And for bonus turmoil, more Greens wars.
• George Pell: David Marr on the fight of Pell’s life (and that’s saying something). Abbott has cautiously praised Pell. Patrick Carlyon on Pell’s due process [$]. Paul Kelly says Pell’s trial is a test of our institutions [$].
• Other topics: Bernard Keane says Hawke and Keating couldn’t get us out of the mess we’re in [$]. Fairfax reports that on universities “the government is willing to give ground on the fee increases, repayment threshold changes and funding cuts”.
• Culture: I recently watched Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled. I went in knowing nothing about it, and enjoyed it, and I still think it’s very interesting. However, it’s worth acquainting yourself with these arguments before you see it. And if they make you feel defensive, this is worth a read. I haven’t yet got around to listening to Still Processing’s take, but it’s always worth a listen.
• UK: Corbyn gets tough.
• US: This NRA ad is nuts. Matt Taibbi on Megyn Kelly and Alex Jones is good.