Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones ponders Tony Abbott's new team and wonders: where is Mal Brough?

You put your right foot in (it)
You take your right foot out (of it)
You put your right foot in (shit)
And you shake it all about (like a turd)
You do the hokey pokey (mokey)
And you turn yourself around (and around and around)
That's what it's all about (reshuffling deck chairs)

 

This merry ditty provided the leitmotif to the great Abbott Cabinet Reshuffle. (comments by Gus)

Why a reshuffle and not just a plain, garden-variety shuffle is anyone’s guess. The LNP has been in power just 15 months and the only previous shuffle I can recall was a bit of tinkering at the edges to try and fill the yawning intellectual gap left by Arthur Sinodinos when he decided hiding was the better part of valour and stepped aside as assistant treasurer. The gap, sadly, remains unfilled.

You will recall Arthur as the chap in the ICAC witness box running his finger round the inside of his blue-tied collar when pressed on his memory, or lack of it, of sending money to himself, from AWH, of which he was a director, to the NSW Liberals, of which he was treasurer.

Arthur’s career finished at that point. He didn’t resign though. He kept the job title but just kind of hung around in the background, mooching. That left the overworked Joe Hockey to carry the nation’s financial burdens without an able assistant, and we all know how well that’s worked out.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-great-abbott-cabinet-reshuffle,7215