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Clive Palmer stands before the insignia for his new party on Wednesday.

Clive Palmer, patriot parrot in search of a refuge, blows his trumpet

Clive Palmer, having misplaced his old party’s name, urgently needed a new one for his latest adventure in politics. And so, Trumpet of Patriots is born.

  • Tony Wright

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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in the first question time of the year.

Dutton expected to go on the attack. Instead, Chalmers had him for lunch

The House of Representatives has hosted debates about many hefty issues over the years. This wasn’t one of them.

  • Matthew Knott
Vale Leunig

Michael Leunig, master of weaponised whimsy, found community in aloneness

For 55 years, Michael Leunig’s illustrations helped make sense of a sometimes crazy world. Now he is gone.

  • Karl Quinn
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe in the halls of Parliament House this morning.

It’s always been risky to bellow from the press gallery, Lidia

The last time anyone shouted from the press gallery, an abject apology was required to save the offender from trial by parliament. What now for Lidia Thorpe?

  • Tony Wright
Bill Shorten and wife Chloe after the Labor veteran delivered his valedictory speech.

Shorten condemns ‘quicksand of name-calling’ in fond farewell

Even Opposition Leader Peter Dutton conceded Bill Shorten would have made a great prime minister.

  • Tony Wright
Shadow Transport Minister Bridget McKenzie.

The remarkable hide of Bridget McKenzie

Dutton may have a glass jaw, but the same can’t be said of McKenzie, who will not let her own chequered record deter her from her pursuit of the prime minister.

  • Nick Bonyhady
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Bill Shorten dancing.

The best of the worst of Bill Shorten’s zingers

Comedian Shaun Micallef, who benefitted from the former Labor leader’s one-liners more than anyone, said “I owe him a great debt.”

  • Nick Bonyhady
Senator Lidia Thorpe wore a “Gammin” t-shirt in the Senate on Monday.

Lidia Thorpe’s gammin was Charles Dickens’ gammon. Really, no porkies

Gammin is used by Indigenous Australians to describe fakery. The word, also written as gammon, was used in the same way by Charles Dickens.

  • Tony Wright
Staff at the Soviet embassy in Canberra are recalled after Vladimir Petrov’s defection to Australia in 1954.

Bugged, bombed and burned: The Russian embassy’s turbulent times

The Russian embassy in Canberra has never offered comfort. But the Soviets refused to move in the 1970s. Now the Russians have to stay put.

  • Tony Wright
Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra

Wong in full flight on housing attack as Labor, Greens scramble for moral high ground

The foreign minister disposed of the diplomatic gloves as she lashed Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather over his party’s blocking of the government’s signature housing bill.

  • Lisa Visentin

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/political-sketch-1n7i