Morrison reaches out to his former foe Shorten

Like Moses holding out his staff to part the Red Sea, the PM put out his hand to Bill Shorten.

Foes reunite: Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison shake hands before being sworn in at the start of the 46th Parliament. Picture: Kym Smith

Like Moses holding out his staff to part the Red Sea, Scott Morrison made his way across the aisle and put out his hand to welcome the defeated Bill Shorten back to ­Canberra.

As the 15th Labor member sworn into parliament, Shorten now has a numerical reminder of how far he’s fallen in the past two months.

His former Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen was 13th, a number some consider unlucky because of the Last Supper, where Judas was the 13th to sit at the table. Remember this if (when?) things go the way of Gethsemane for Anthony Albanese.

Now wedged on the green bench between Michelle Rowland and Jason Clare, Shorten, his new lack of elbow room clearly visible, winced as Albanese told the chamber he “would have preferred a different result on May 18”.

Albanese continued: “Where at times it will be passionate, I will be too, you might have noticed,” probably unaware that behind closed doors his colleagues are complaining about the number of daily passionate press appearances the new Labor leader is conducting. So much for Labor not being the story!

Suddenly, Bob Katter took to the floor, at the request of no one, to remind the chamber that he ­existed, before concluding: “I would pray, a little less attention to myself, Mr Speaker.”

That’s a sentiment Shorten undoubtedly shared.

But it wasn’t to be, as Stuart Robert took it upon himself to follow ScoMo’s lead and bound over to the former Labor leader.

“Look forward to working with you!” Robert was overheard to ­enthusiastically proclaim. “The NDIS is good!”

If you could have hit pause on that moment and looked closely, it could pinpoint the exact moment Shorten realised how bad his predicament had become — the gaffe-prone Robert was attempting to offer him sage counsel.

Earlier yesterday, the sermon by newly installed Canberra ­Anglican bishop Mark Short spoke directly to the bruised egos on the hill.

“The past can so easily become our means of vindication, as individuals or even sometimes as a ­nation,” Short said.

“We want the past told in such a way that we are the ones in the right. But there’s a problem with that. We gloss over the aspects of the past that cast us in a less than flattering light.

“And instead of the past being a place where we learn and discover together, it becomes a battleground, a zero-sum game where my or our reputation must be preserved at the cost of others’ ­exclusion.”

Yet amid the darkness, there was some potential light for Shorten. As one politician noted during the Governor-General’s address as both houses united for the official opening of the 46th parliament, “Even in a jam-packed Senate, ­nobody will sit next to Malcolm Roberts.”