I was in Thailand when the Bondi massacre occurred. The local TV networks in Thailand, already busy with the floods in the south and a border war with Cambodia, covered the atrocity fairly comprehensively. I supplemented this with direct internet-mediated news from Australia, but once I had the facts of the case, I largely stopped following the onrushing news cycle. The repetition and overabundance of reporting was too much. At some point, you need to step out, else you may be drawn into a maudlin scrolling of every tidbit. Despite my well-known sympathies with Israel and the Jewish people, I needed time-out on this event until I got back home.

Yesterday, in events somehow related to that awful incident last year, the Liberal and National Parties at Federal level exploded and the coalition between them, dissolved. This may only be temporary but it is nevertheless an almighty shot in the foot. At a time when the Federal Labor Government was vulnerable thanks to the lukewarm performance of the Prime Minister over the past two months (on multiple fronts), the Opposition chose to implode. It is a head-scratcher, I tell you. If one had a circular firing squad on hand, it couldn't do worse.