THE AWAKENING

There would have to be an adjustment in lifestyle, someone said, and he just sighed. Good enough would never be good enough. There was no use trying to please anyone anymore, jumping at shadows. He had forgotten, or had it beaten out of him, that he had the capacity to turn things around. Like many humans, their abilities were leached from them, battered into some kind of conformity. 

But in Australia a funny thing had happened on the way to the Apocalypse.

The change of Prime Minister from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull had switched the mood remarkably quickly; and a tone of optimism, or acceptance, was back. No longer groaning under the lash of rigorous rectitude, people were no longer ashamed to be who they were. They weren't the most sophisticated creatures on Earth. They weren't the best informed, or the best looking. But they could laugh with a certain ease that had been lacking; and so it was, led from the top, a simple change in terminology, emphasis, personality, and the country changed with it. 

Labor had been having a good old go at Turnbull's wealth, which was ridiculous, because all he had done was achieve what many Australians would like to achieve, a harbour view, sweeping lawns, a stable family, position, wealth. 

And those pointing the finger, the Labor politicians, were in the top 1% of income earners in the country. It was truly ridiculous, and backfired as it should. 

"I look forward to the day when you're Prime Minister," he had once said to Malcolm, at a function in Woollahra for John Olsen, regarded by some as Australia's best artist. Olsen's son owned a swanky gallery in the upmarket Sydney suburb. Queen Street, Woollahra.

"Not much chance of that, John," had come the reply.

Well none of it mattered. Malcolm had finally achieved his destiny. And what many viewed as a ghastly trio, Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Kevin Andrews, had been promptly relegated to history. 

Largely, it would have to be said, unlamented.

It had all, in retrospect, happened very quickly.

He could hear them high up, the elated passenger, the excitement, and even the pilot, seasoned as he was, was in a buoyant mood. Everything is flowing in the right direction; you are where you're meant to be; would you stop thinking about things that should never be public? Knock him from his perch, someone thought, but the tide had turned.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/10/16/wile-e-coyote-moment/

Nevertheless, Labor clearly hoped the nation’s millionaire PM would be the most prospective sitting duck this week, as it tried for the third time in recent political history to use the politics of envy to its advantage.

Class warfare didn’t work for either former Labor leader Mark Latham or Treasurer Wayne Swan, yet this didn’t deter former Sussex Street bovver-boy Sam Dastyari who tried the tactic again this week.

Senator Dastyari led a smear campaign against the PM, ostensibly about Mr Turnbull’s investments having a connection to the Cayman Islands tax haven, but actually hoping to foment voter resentment over the PM’s wealth.

The PM finally belled this cat after Labor insisted on devoting much of the week’s question time to the matter, suggesting if Mr Shorten wished to wear a sandwich board telling voters that “Mr Turnbull has a lot of money”, he should feel free to do so, although “I think people know that”.