What an extraordinary year. And what a wonderful way for conservative-leaning Australians to head into their summer holidays. Over the coming weeks there won’t be any shortage of ‘relaxed and comfortable’ conversations to be enjoyed around the nation’s fabled barbies, that’s for sure.

Twelve months ago, the accepted wisdom by most pundits (but not by this magazine or its editor) was that Bill Shorten and Jeremy Corbyn would inevitably become the respective leaders of Australia and Great Britain and that – terrifyingly – a new era of socialism would descend upon our two countries.