Where's the leadership we deserve?

At a time when the government needed leadership, unity and stability, the combination of personal ambition and the desire for revenge delivered exactly the opposite. Irrespective of who one believed should be in the top job, the country deserved better, and only time will tell if it gets it.

Personalities, and personal ambition, and in our view a misreading of the mood of the majority of people in the street, has resulted in the running of the country put to one side, while a bunch of self-centered politicians have indulged themselves, in just the same way as their predecessors did.

The real tragedy is that the economy, while not booming, is sound and growing, employment is growing, inflation and interest rates are low (probably too low) and taxation, except for the "big" end of town, is coming down. The federal budget is forecast to make it back to a surplus way ahead of forecast, and given the potential change of government at the next election, that's probably now in doubt.

If there's one good (?) thing to come out of the debacle in Canberra it's probably that the chief destabiliser and those pulling the strings didn't win, although they'll no doubt be happy enough they've dispatched the one person - now the previous PM - they didn't want to win. The question is will they now be satisfied and pull their heads in, or will they work to destabilise another moderate?

If there's one good (?) thing to come out of the week's media focus it is that the Hayne Royal Commission wasn't on the front pages.

Meanwhile AMP's appointment gets out thumbs up - experience and ability, and hopefully prepared to make the changes necessary - or enforced by the HRC and future legislation. Hedge Clippings has previously been critical of both AMP and David Murray, but this is a good and smart move. However, there's still a long, long way to go.