Well, here we are, a new term of parliament begins next week. There’ll be fresh faces and, hopefully, fresh ideas.
So will the government use its massive majority to press ahead with major reforms in housing, or tax, and how will opposition leader Sussan Ley and her team rebuild their battered party?
Before we get to that, the news this week has been dominated by Anthony Albanese’s trip to China, which has been full of stage-managed warmth.
But with our very own Paul Sakkal away travelling with the PM, and our host Jacqueline Maley on a book tour, we have acting political editor Nick Bonyhady in the chair with special guests: Nine’s political editor Charles Croucher and CBD columnist Kishor Napier-Raman.

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been in China this week, a picture of warmth as he shook hands with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

But there’s a lot happening behind these carefully stage-managed moments.

As one commentator put it: “The tightrope along which [Australia’s] been walking between the U.S. and China - just got pulled tighter at both ends.”

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher, on how Anthony Albanese is balancing his desire to ink more trade deals with Xi Jinping, while facing pressure from the United States, to fight against China.

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One time high court justice Dyson Heydon and famed neurosurgeon Charlie Teo once held the futures of countless people in their hands.

But then came their downfall.

As one lawyer put of Dyson Heydon, after a high court inquiry in 2020 found that he had sexually harassed six young female associates, “At the same time he was dispensing justice in the highest court in Australia’s legal system, he was [engaged in] sexual harassment.”

And Charlie Teo? Two years after being found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct - for, among other charges, taking financial advantage of a vulnerable patient - he was reduced to performing surgery overseas.

So what, then, to make of their so-called reputation rehabilitation tours?

Today, CBD columnist Kishor Napier-Raman, on the continued celebration of these men, in some of the most privileged circles in Australia.

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