But as of 9.35pm on Monday night, “move on” was not quite the goal of Australian politics itself.

Why, this very day, Australian politics had presented us with the possibility - briefly and mercifully yet horrifyingly entertained - of George Christensen being the Deputy Prime Minister.

As a rule, Australia has little interest in who occupies this post, but Barnaby Joyce has changed that with the swiftness and stench with which he will soon be changing nappies. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with newly installed Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. Credit:AAP In recent times the nation has been consumed by the true character of the official pretender to national leadership. And after sighing deeply while pondering Malcolm Turnbull, the nation has also been forced to think about his deputy.



As of Monday, this position is occupied by a nationally renowned figure named Michael McCormbull, or similar. It’s something like that and surely he’s named McCormbull because we have no idea who he is or what he stands for so we might as well call him McCormbull as a matter of convenience. Michael McCormbull is, as is now tradition, not to be held responsible for the previous statements of persons who assume offices containing the description “Prime Minister”. As Q&A was there to remind us, via an early audience question, Deputy McCormbull (real name: Michael McCormack) once expressed views on a social question - the rights of gay people - that have morphed somewhat over the course of his march to national celebrity. But like all those who attain high office in Australia, Michael McCormbull has defenders willing to give him the benefit of rather enormous doubt.

And let it be said that if someone is going to give you the benefit of the doubt, let that person be Catherine McGregor. McGregor has skin and ink in this game, and she came to Q&A on precisely the right night: the night Q&A needed some generosity of spirit beyond the ability of the rest of us rendered comatose from banging our heads against the nearest wall.

McGregor, who transitioned in the public eye as a senior member of the military and friend of Tony Abbott, lavished the same benefit of doubt upon the new National Party leader that we would all hope to have lavished upon us in memory of our worst moments from long, long ago.

“I wouldn't like to be reminded of everything I said or did 25-30 years ago,” she said, while noting that there is “a man called Gerard Henderson who combs through everyone's essays every Friday from primary school and questions them”.



It provoked Tony Jones to prod the couch-bound Mr Henderson: “He's fun like that, isn't he, Gerard.”

Jones then threw to Clare O’Neil, Labor’s Shadow Minister For Making the Most Of An Easy Opportunity On National Television, who offered this take on Deputy PM McCormbull: “I think the comments are terrible… he shouldn't have said those things. I think the broader point here is that we're ending up with a Deputy Prime Minister that probably you and most of the people in the audience have never heard of before. And that is a little bit concerning.”

O’Neil no doubt had her marching orders on political messaging but this was misguided. By then the nation was well aware that it’s new Deputy Prime Minister was a man named something or other, representing almost nobody, who will eventually have to be dislodged from high office with a nuclear missile.

The question that lingered: can the nation move on?

Catherine McGregor said Tony Abbott was consumed by his loss to Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:ABC

McGregor was once again better placed than most to observe and diagnose the national condition: could the body politic be revived?

To that end, she contemplated the status of her reportedly doomed friendship with a former prime minister.

“Yeah, look,” McGregor began, with the only two non-obscene words that commonly precede “Tony Abbott”.

“Rumours of the death of our friendship are grossly exaggerated.”

She went on: “He’s a great person of great magnanimity. He doesn't hold grudges. I do think he's lost balance because of Malcolm Turnbull. I think he's consumed by that and, sometimes, he's not the best self that he's capable of.”

