Do they not have the first clue that they are the ones who did so much of the damage in the first place, that it was by listening to their extreme views that the Libs lost the mob? It was precisely this point that LNP Senator Scott Ryan – president of the Senate – was referring to after the Victorian debacle when he said, “I am sick of being lectured to by people who aren’t members of the party, by people who have never stood on polling booths, about what it means to be a real Liberal.” Bingo. The LNP under Scott Morrison can steer towards Trump if it must, but it’ll just be competing with Pauline Hanson and Cory Bernardi for the crazies. As a people, I believe we have looked at what’s happening in America and said “We’re not sure what we are doing, but we are certainly not doing that.” Australians don't want to follow the US towards Trumpdom. Credit:AP A poem for rainy Sydney

A reader copied this from a wall in Haast, New Zealand, and I think it has resonance for Sydney this week. It rained and rained and rained The average fall was well maintained and when the tracks were simple bogs, It started raining cats and dogs.

After a drought of half an hour We had a most refreshing shower And then the most curious of all A gentle rain began to fall Next day but one was fairly dry

Save for one deluge from the sky Which wetted the party to the skin And then at last the rain set in. Sydney got soaked this week. Credit:Louise Kennerley Singo says sorry

My piece on 2GB management not wanting to renew Alan Jones's contract next year caused, I am reliably informed, quite a stir in the corridors of power, and no little squawking with a great deal of feathers flying. So be it. Many people want to know where major shareholder and longtime owner of 2GB John Singleton stands. Again, I am reliably informed that he is completely over the whole Jones thing. When I called him on it, he declined to be drawn. He did, however, confirm something I heard from John Wagner in Toowoomba – the eldest brother of the Wagner family who successfully sued Jones for $3.7 million dollars for defamation. Just the day before I met with Wagner in Toowoomba, Singleton had called him to personally apologise at great length for the slurs Jones had put out against the Wagner family name, using the 2GB platform. It was not a legal manoeuvre because the case was over and the judgment handed down. It was just Singleton, having read the judgment, realising the extent of the outrage, and wanting to say sorry. “It was the right thing to do,” Singleton says simply. “Alan has done mostly good work, but on this one he was dead wrong.” John Singleton took it upon himself to call the Wagners. Credit:Kate Geraghty Tweet of the Week

“It has been a tough couple of days in CQ with the bushfires. Great news today though with Adani announcing they plan to start work before Christmas! Adani has been a little Aussie battler. So many have written it off but they just keep chugging along!” Resources Minister Matt Canavan, @mattjcan. Adani as the “little Aussie Battler” was not well received. Quote of the Week “The Liberal Party has changed - largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing who talk about and talk to themselves, rather than listening to the people.” - Julia Banks, defecting from the Liberal Party to sit on the crossbenches. She was the wrong one to bully. “Homophobic, anti-women, climate-change deniers.” - Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer on how the Liberals were being seen.

“Guys, we are f----d.” - Message sent to several Victorian Liberal MPs, by one of their number, as it became obvious the Victorian election was being lost. “I am sick of being lectured to by people who aren’t members of the party, by people who have never stood on polling booths, about what it means to be a real Liberal.” - Senator Scott Ryan, Senate president, on Radio National this week. “I’m saying very clearly to the SCG Trust today: do not sign contracts for the demolition of this stadium. Do not demolish this stadium. If you do, you will not get a single cent of free public money from me if I am elected premier in March of next year.” - New Labor leader Michael Daley steps up on #StadiumSplurge. “I met my wife, Therese Rein, at the Australian National University during orientation week. I thought she was a bit of all right, so I went to her breakfast table and struck up a conversation: ‘Have you read The Communist Manifesto?’” - Kevin Rudd with his best pick-up line. Obviously, she married him anyway! “Often when good women call out or are subjected to bad behaviour, the reprisals, backlash and commentary portrays them as the bad ones; the liar, the troublemaker, the emotionally unstable or weak, or someone who should be silenced.” - Federal MP Julia Banks, putting the boot into Australian politics and moving to the crossbench.