We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when …

On the plus side, it turns out that death isn’t always the end it’s usually made out to be.

That was then. Announcement from George Brandis and Marise Payne on May 5:

The Australian government has been advised by the United States government that Australian citizen and member of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Neil Christopher Prakash, was killed by a US airstrike in Mosul, Iraq, on 29 April 2016.

Brandis on Sky News that day:

Kieran Gilbert: Islamic State recruit Neil Prakash has been killed. This man was the most wanted Australian terrorist. With me now is the Attorney-General George Brandis to confirm this news. This notorious individual, as I say, the most wanted member of ISIS in terms of Australia’s perspective, has been killed.

Brandis: Yes, I can confirm that, Kieran. We received overnight confirmation from the American government that a strike in Mosul last Friday night Australian Eastern Time did succeed in taking out Prakash and about a dozen other ISIL officials who were gathered at some kind of meeting in suburban Mosul.

And Malcolm Turnbull in Parliament House that day:

I can confirm that the government has been advised that Neil Prakash, an Australian citizen, was killed by a US air strike in Mosul in Iraq on 29 April. Prakash has been considered the most senior Australian operative in Daesh. He actively encouraged acts of terrorism in the West. He has been linked to several Australia-based terrorist attack plans promoting random killings of innocent civilians.

Mark Schliebs on The Australian website yesterday:

Australia’s most notorious Islamic State recruiter and terror-plot instigator, Neil Prakash, has reportedly been arrested in the Middle East. Prakash, a 25-year-old former Melbourne man who has gone by (the name of) Abu Khaled al-Cambodi since joining Islamic State in 2013, has been in custody in an unidentified country for several weeks, according to a New York Times report … It also reported that Prakash had only been wounded in the airstrike that the US government had originally said had killed him in May.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975):

The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.

Large Man with Dead Body: Here’s one.

The Dead Collector: That’ll be ninepence.

The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.

The Dead Collector: What?

Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There’s your ninepence.

The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.

The Dead Collector: ’Ere, he says he’s not dead.

Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.

The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not.

The Dead Collector: He isn’t.

Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.

Malcolm Turnbull pulling out the tough talk over the census on 3AW yesterday:

Turnbull: I think that what is very clear is that (the Australian Bureau of Statistics) put too much faith in IBM — and look, to be fair, IBM is one of the biggest brand names in the computer world. It is almost synonymous with the 21st-century technology. They used to say — here’s a good bit of irony, Neil — there used to be a saying no one got fired for buying IBM ...

Neil Mitchell: Yeah, but you haven’t fired anybody?

Turnbull: I can assure you the lessons will be very, very carefully learned, I can assure you of that.

The Illawarra Mercury, Thursday:

On the evening of August 13, Martin Wanat had a two-course meal consisting of chicken and chocolate, then settled down on some fresh pillows for a nap. Unfortunately, he was at Woolworths at the time.