Property billionaire Sam Guo promised to build a guest house next to his mansion after Joe Hockey queried his $11m purchase. That was the start of his problems.

The government commitment to a budget surplus is surely counterproductive as the jobless rate increases and household spending slumps.

For those traumatised by ferocious bushfires, compensation would be a welcome acknowledgement of the struggle to start again.

Older brigade members, those with perhaps 40 or 50 years’ of fire-fighting experience, are gradually retiring from frontline roles, and there is no rush of new blood to take their place.

More than 600 kindergarten kids were suspended last year and the number has been steadily rising, prompting calls for an investigation