Play politics with national security? Lose two flags, Tony.

National security is talked up by both major parties as the one issue where the day-to-day pettiness of politics gets put aside in that great vague endeavour, the “national interest,” the definition of which seems to change several times a day according to what the person mentioning it wants, but that’s a discussion for another time.

In reality, of course, national security gets played for politics all the time — most visibly by Tony Abbott’s rapidly proliferating flag collection, which by now is large enough to cover most of Tasmania in a nice patriotic doona.

But when it comes to informing Parliament about important national security developments, like whether a letter from Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis to the Attorney-General’s office was passed on to the right people, the government’s sombre we’re-all-in-this-together facade goes out the window — a point The Weekly‘s Charlie Pickering managed to highlight last night despite being smothered in a giant pile of Tony’s flags.

If you have seen Charlie Pickering since he disappeared into the Great Southern Flag Sea, please notify authorities. His family are worried.