If nothing else, it’s certainly been a year of living in interesting times, here in Australia. High-profile court cases, election surprises and natural disasters aplenty: we had it all. Even worse, we suffered the unspeakable ignominy of being outdone by the sheep-botherers at the rugby and cricket world cups. I dimly recall some minor sporting contretemps called the “Bledisloe Cup” or something, but that’s probably not important.

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Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. I grew up in a generational-Labor-voting family. I kept the faith long after the political left had abandoned it. In the last decade...