One statement that had not aged well this year accompanied Scott Morrison’s “reform” of the Public Service. You will recall he said that Ministers would make policy and the job of the public service was simply to implement it : the “shut up and do as you are told model.

Fortunately, in this unwelcoming environment, we have had public health officers and others who were willing to offer advice, and public officials who were able to design and roll out various income support and other measures.

How would it be if all those public officials stood merely and silently by and waited for the Dear Leader’s instructions - as Scotty told us the system would work henceforth? What a world we would be living in now.