In a crowded field, this is Auspol 2018’s biggest loser

It’s easy to work out who is politics’ biggest winner of 2018, but picking our biggest loser is a harder task thanks to an embarrassment of riches, writes Dennis Atkins.

The political year began with two good days for the Coalition following the first Newspoll for the year which showed a six point turnaround from the 45-55 chasm seen in November the year before.

That good news was about as good as it got for the Liberal and Nationals and it barely lasted two news cycles.

Just as Coalition MPs were urging on this glimpse of sunlit uplands, the Barnaby Joyce controversy broke.

It’s been downhill and stuck in a ditch ever since.

It’s hard to believe the Joyce love child/staffer affair/marriage breakup drama happened this year — it feels like it was half a decade ago.

Australian politics is now so chock full of madness, scandal, tomfoolery, whopping policy snafus and behaviour that wouldn’t be tolerated from preschoolers that a month seems like a year.

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The Coalition had two good days this year, and then the Barnaby Joyce scandal broke. Picture: Gary Ramage

So, as 2018 rushes to a close at something like warp speed — with bits of the Nationals flying off like a broken spacecraft attempting re-entry — we can look back with something approximating clear eyes and reflect on who won and who lost.

The winner is easy. It’s Bill Shorten followed by daylight.

The Labor leader has had plenty of lucky breaks from the other side’s own goals but he deserves congratulations for turning in a near faultless year managing the politics and policy with relative ease.

Shorten and his close coterie of consiglieres have kept the peace inside Caucus and in the broader labour movement.

There have been an absolute minimum of fights over preselections, policy and political priorities.

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Shorten also stayed ahead of the government on policy — both those plans Labor rolled out as part of their plans for the election, and in response to developments and Coalition missteps.

The most stark example of where Labor outmanoeuvred the Coalition and left Canberra’s sideshow alley with a sack of soft toys was the eventual surrender by the government on calls for a banking royal commission — which technically happened late last year but its drama has been centre stage throughout 2018.

The final report of commissioner Kenneth Hayne will drop in early February and you can bet the kudos will go to Labor while the Coalition dances to see what recommendations it will and won’t accept.

Labor seems intent on making a pledge to continue the Hayne’s work once the election campaign proper gets underway while the government has little choice but to do whatever the former High Court justice says.

Labor leader Bill Shorten has had a stellar year while the Coalition floundered. Picture: Kelly Barnes/AAP

Shorten’s place as the winner of the 2018 also rests on his management of his shadow ministry.

During the first year or two of Labor in Opposition, it was hard to find more than a handful of shadow ministers doing the hard work and making an impact prosecuting the ALP’s case or taking the battle up to the Coalition.

That’s changed in the last 12 months with just about everyone lifting their game. Not too many senior ALP politicians are going to go to bed the night before polling day wondering.

For all of these reasons, Shorten deserves to be crowned the winner of the politics in 2018 — doing a job often described as the worst in Australian public life.

The loser for 2018 is harder, mainly because of the crowded field.

A deep dive into the past year leaves us with two standouts and they both have Queensland connections.

Barnaby Joyce might be a New South Welshman but he cut his political teeth north of the Tweed and, if he could’ve elbowed his way into preselection for Maranoa, he would have stayed here.

He coulda been a contender, but instead Peter Dutton was outflanked by Scott Morrison in the leadership drama. Picture: Dan Peled/AAP

He returned to his original home town, Tamworth, and quickly pushed and shoved until he was Nationals’ leader and Deputy Prime Minister.

This did not end the way he hoped with a personal scandal bringing him down after he was outed as the imminent father of a love child to one his former staffers while his marriage turned to custard.

The Barnaby drama — added to by a small bus load of claims about other poor behaviour — rollicked through February until he quit.

It then had a life of its own and never really went away. Who can forget the cringe-making Channel 7 interview and the self-serving memoir?

He proved he had a complete lack of self awareness when he began dragging his leadership coat after the Liberals dumped Malcolm Turnbull.

As breathtaking as Joyce’s performance was, the biggest loser was senior Queensland LNP Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton.

A madcap and doomed leadership challenge against Turnbull — has there ever been one so cack-handed? — left him looking like one of the Three Stooges.

In the process he lost his authority and is now a spent force in a role he once owned — the best attack hitman in the fight against Labor.

He’s the year’s biggest feather duster.

Anyway, we’ve got a year ahead of us and there will be plenty of action with an election due in May but likely in March.

Happy Christmas to everyone and thanks for reading.

Dennis Atkins is The Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor.

@dwabriz

Don’t miss Dennis Atkins and Malcolm Farr’s politics podcast Two Grumpy Hacks, available for free on iTunes or Soundcloud.