We learnt some important new things from the extended transcript of Malcolm Turnbull's first phone conversation with US President Donald Trump.
Probably least surprising is that the rebooted Trump White House still leaks, even after chief of staff Reince Priebus was axed.
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My most unpleasant call: Trump
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A transcript of the infamous first call between PM Malcolm Turnbull and US President Donald Trump has been leaked, revealing more details about the tense exchange.
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My most unpleasant call: Trump
A transcript of the infamous first call between PM Malcolm Turnbull and US President Donald Trump has been leaked, revealing more details about the tense exchange.
Clearly, this transcript going public would be extraordinary in all but the new normal in Washington, DC, these days.
The record itself shows Turnbull in a good light, in some respects.
But it also lays bare the callousness of Australia's refugee policy, and the extent to which voters here have been hoodwinked about the US refugee transfer; about another coming the other way; and about the PM's willingness to bend the facts in order to win.
On the positive side of the ledger, we see Turnbull as a tough negotiator, unwilling to retreat, and determined to present the terms of an agreement in the most palatable form to his interlocutor, in order to dissolve resistance.
As an accomplished businessman, Turnbull exhibits a silkiness mixed with blunt force, more than once insisting that the newbie President stop ranting for long enough to hear the Australian case.
His singular aim is to protect the deal nutted out with Barack Obama, and to do so in light of Trump's travel ban, and his adolescent protestations that the deal is "rotten".Â
Turnbull's resolve in the face of a newly empowered alpha-bully, runs through the conversation like a cord of steel unmoved by the blow-back.
Trump sulked, warning he would look like a "dope" for going ahead with what was a "stupid" deal. He may even have hung up in an orange-faced huff. But ,crucially, he did not renege.
On the negative side, Turnbull came across as indifferent to suffering and, worse, as an enthusiastic advocate of the unrelenting human negation at the heart of Australia's refugee management regime.
We learn also that Turnbull regards Nauru and Manus Island refugees as illegitimate - mere "economic refugees" looking for a better life - despite all having been assessed as bona fide by Australia and the UNHCR.
Even Trump was flummoxed when Turnbull skited: "They have been under our supervision for over three years now and we know exactly everything about them."
"Why haven't you let them out?"Â POTUSÂ replied.
Finally, and despite insisting there was no people swap with the US, we learnt that Turnbull sold the Manus-Nauru transfer to Trump in precisely these terms explicitly referring to our "end of the bargain".
Even now, the government says its agreement to take some 31 refugees from the US camps in Costa Rica had nothing to do with the US deal relating to Manus and Nauru.
Amid Trump's push back, Turnbull even offered to take more, and dodgy individuals at that, "anyone you want" provided they had not arrived by boat.
Australians will see this desperation for what it was: if it looks like a swap, and operates like a swap, it's a swap. The PM made that much clear.