Twelve months ago, it all seemed a little too easy. Fix up Labor’s mess, stop the boats, scrap the pointless carbon tax, get the fiscal house back in order and while you’re at it have a crack at indigenous welfare. What could go wrong? Those who had despaired of the juvenile shenanigans and Pythonesque bumblings of the Rudd and Gillard teams – for which the phrases ‘pink batts’, ‘surplus’ and ‘MRRT’ were sufficient shorthand – assumed that the major problems facing the nation would soon be rectified, now that the grown ups were back from their six year sejourn on...