One of my mother’s quaint, favourite sayings was: “I took my harp to a party, and nobody asked me to play.”

I was reminded of the quote this week when the Opposition, and the House of Reps cross-benchers, started posturing about turning up for the listed session of Parliament next week, even though the government had postponed it.

What were they planning to do? Kick the front doors in like those union thugs tried to do a few decades ago?

It was always a Twitter- and headline-grabbing piece of nonsense. Only the government of the day can instigate a session of parliament and the posturers knew that.

But the postponement also confirmed for all of us that this is a government on the run. Too scared to risk the numbers on an overdue bank royal commission, still mired in the dual citizenship mess and with a PM now conceivably scared to face a party room in case there’s a challenge. Interesting times. And there are by-elections to come.

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To be honest (something the voters don’t think any politicians are these days) when the proverbial hit the fan over Ludlam and Hinch way back in July, I thought the Greens Senator would probably be the only casualty of the dual citizenship brouhaha. 

Five months later, it’s starting to look like I could almost do a political Steven Bradbury – be the last man standing.

This truly has become political Noddyland. A few days after Ludlam called a presser to announce his resignation, the other deputy leader of the Greens, Senator Larissa Waters followed suit.

Since then, the dominoes have just kept toppling. John Alexander one day, Jacqui Lambie the next. Watch this space. There’ll be more.

Led by the Greens, some of us tried to get a tougher audit amendment through the Senate again last week to add muscle to the Coalition/Labor compromise that still includes the “Malcolm Roberts defence”: I believed I was Australian.

Under the weaker version, an errant senator is not automatically referred to the High Court but, if a senator knowingly provides false information of his or her heritage they “shall be guilty of a serious contempt of the Senate and dealt with by the Senate”.

I don’t believe that is tough enough – especially the way some members have played with the truth in recent months. At least Labor and the crossbench got the “moment of truth” deadline pulled forward to December 1, when both houses are still sitting, and not pushed away for 21 days – as Prime Minister Turnbull wanted — until we’ve adjourned until February. Even that December 1 date is again in doubt for the House of Reps.

 

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Political correction:  In last week’s diary, I mentioned how, with no offence intended to the gay community, my office ran a sweep on the postal vote outcome with the $5 entry fee donated by the winner to the Wintringham homeless project. My guess was a pessimistic 56-44.  The most optimistic was Labor senator Katy Gallagher with 68-32. The closest was the Xenaphon team’s Stirling Griff  with 62-38.

I was wrong. The most optimistic Yes prediction was Doug Cameron’s at 70-30 followed by Lib Dem David Leyonhjelm 69 -31. David L demanded a clarification. Done.

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Paul Murray, from PM Live on Sky News is an unashamed petrol head. The original and proud “Bathurst bogan”.

The former Northern Territory chief honcho, Adam Giles, was on Murray’s show the other night, sharing a Melbourne studio with me. In a commercial break, Murray was orgasmic, grilling Giles on what happened after he removed the speed limit on the territory’s arrow-straight outback highways.

Apparently, after the autobahn decision, Giles took a Ferrari or a Lamborghini (fast cars aren’t my strong suit) for a bit of a blowout. There were rumours he had really done a tyre-scorcher.

Giles’ response to journos was that he didn’t know what speed he clocked “because I wouldn’t irresponsibly take my eyes off the road”

I tried to top him: pointing out that I had done a lap of Bathurst with King of the Mountain, Peter Brock, behind the wheel, and we’d hit 285kph.

The fleeting smug look on Adam Giles’ face told me I didn’t even come close.