It's been partially because of an unpassable budget, and partially because of the sorts of external economic forces that were absolutely the government's responsibility when Labor were in power but are clearly not the government's fault now. However, in any case, Diamond Joe's about to unveil a massive further deficit with no possible surplus in sight in tomorrow's midyear fiscal and economic outlook. And, again, that would be reasonable except that that Hockey's entire pitch for the gig was that he had miraculous powers of economic sorcery. It doesn't help that he mercilessly hammered former treasurer Wayne Swan for relying on pathetic excuses like the existence of the Global Financial Crisis. Needless to say, opposition leader Bill Shorten is in a revengey sort of a mood. "Joe Hockey said, when he got to power with Tony Abbott, that they would be in surplus within the first year, then within the first term," he said yesterday. "I'm surprised they haven't said 'the cat ate my homework' before Monday's mini-budget." Joe's cat was unavailable for comment.

And the whole climate change response was going so well! The climate talks in Lima have stalled, despite an extra day being added, as the developed world and the developing world face a very familiar problem: the refusal of the former to assist the latter. The issue is the phrase "differentiated responsibilities", which has existed in all climate conventions since 1992 and makes clear that the onus for mitigating climate change lies mainly with the richer nations, who did much of their unfettered polluting over previous decades, rather than developing countries for whom a major high-tech u-turn on energy generation is economically impossible. Richer countries, including Australia, see things rather differently.

The pressure is on for a differentiated responsibilities-free draft decision to be ratified before the talks break up, with India, China and nations in Africa and South America still opposed and the wealthier developed world stubbornly sticking to their if-you're-so-poor-why-don't-you-just-be-more-rich guns. Kudos to the unnamed member of the NZ delegation, though, who reportedly declared that everyone faced compromises they didn't savour, but "there are dead rats that need to be swallowed." That may not be quite the best-chosen argument for countries whose populations still face significant levels of poverty and starvation, y'know. From Russia, with Sanctions Speaking of diplomacy, the tumbling global price of oil has seen a commensurate increase in Russia's rhetoric against the US with regards to the ongoing Ukraine-related sanctions. With hostilities still active in Ukraine since Russia's surprise annexation of the Crimean peninsula earlier this year, the US Congress has drafted new economic restrictions which will affect Russian arms companies and investment in oil projects.

The existing sanctions had not gone down well, but they're biting harder now that Russian petrodollars have tanked. And Russia is playing to its historical strengths in response: vague yet thinly-veiled threats. "We will not be able to leave that without an answer," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in response to the US draft bill, presumably via a massive video screen before telling an aide that "the time has come to deploy Project Omega". Sure, the answer will probably be in Russian sanctions against the West rather than a doomsday weapon in the form of a giant robot emerging from within a mountain. But we can't be absolutely certain that it won't be, right? Homophobic group perhaps not smartest people on planet If you're a desperate homophobic hate organisation still attempting to hammer the "b-b-but gay is a choice!" line as some sort of knockdown argument against letting people get on with their lives in peace, then you might want to learn from the experience of US organisation PFOX: don't use one stock photo model to portray identical twins, and also maybe check that said model is not also both out and proud.

The group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays stuck up a huge billboard in Virginia arguing that science (science!) had proved that being gay is not biological and that homosexuality was therefore a choice – an argument that would make zero sense if the gay-is-a-choice premise was correct. For the record, science (science!) has said no such thing, although it has found that anti-gay conversion therapy of the PFOX-supported stripe absolutely doesn't work. It has, however, found evidence that the programmes are harmful for those who go through them, which is why no credible psychological organisation endorses such practices. However, PFOX decided that they'd draw on a long-discredited 2000 paper that purported to show that identical twins had different sexual orientations. A billboard was erected with photos of two "twins" - actually two photos of the same chap - to declare this non-fact as truth, which was placed on the side of a highway. This came something of a surprise surprise to the fellow in the photos: South African model Kyle Roux, who did the shoot in question a decade back and who has "lived my life openly gay and happy," as he told NBC 12 in Richmond, Virginia. And again, apologies to the future generations who are going to wonder why people cared so much about people's sexual orientation. You're right: we really did waste a lot of time on this stuff when there were far more pressing issues to address.