Deposed Labor cabinet minister Ed Husic threw down the gauntlet to the Albanese government last week when he challenged it to “burn through the timidity that has shackled us in the first term”.

It came immediately on the back of an election deemed by most commentators to be the worst in living memory for its near total absence of substantive policy ideas or discussion about Australia’s future; and a campaign with almost no outward reflection on the global strategic challenges that prompted so many voters to seek the safest harbour.