With an extraordinary 4,000 Twitterati voting in just the first 12 hours, the answers came back: Malcolm Turnbull, 31 per cent; Julie Bishop, 44 per cent; Peter Dutton 16 per cent; Josh Frydenberg, 9 per cent. And you’re right, I probably should have added Abbott to the list, though only one of the Twitterati suggested I was remiss in not so doing, while dozens suggested I needed to have a “None of the Above". Monash misused On the subject of our former prime minister, however, there has been enormous coverage this week of his “Monash Forum”, a group of disaffected Conservatives who believe – no, really – that the Turnbull government should spend $4 billion building its own coal power station, on the bones of the old Hazelwood station. (Quite how this fits with their insistence in everything else of the virtues of the free market, economic rationalism and “small government” policies, I have no clue.) General John Monash had a fresh and agile mind. Credit:Fairfax archives

Look, the plan has been so roundly derided by both economists and environmentalists, there is little left but the smoking ruins for me to turn over here. But as one who has a book on the battle of Le Hamel, Monash’s Masterpiece, coming out in three weeks, please allow me to add my voice to that of his descendants, and address the ludicrousness of invoking Sir John’s name merely because of his work on the Victorian coalfield’s after WWI. The essence of Sir John’s greatness, was his spirit of innovation, his refusal to continue doing something simply because that was the way it had always been done. In the words of prime minister Billy Hughes, “General Monash brought to every military situation a fresh, vigorous and agile mind. To him it was a problem to which a solution had to be found. And he no more thought of pursuing the tactics that had served in the Sudan or the Boer War than he would have of using the tools of the Stone Age for some great engineering work.” Listen to the great engineers now. Coal is from the Stone Age. It has no economic, or environmental future. And invoking Sir John’s name to defend it is harnessing the name of a dead man, to push a cause he would never have pushed in life. Illustration: Reg Lynch Credit:Not for syndication Charles and Camilla

As I have said many times, Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess, will always be welcome in Australia, and good luck to them. But yes, seeing as you ask – because many have – their presence here really has been good for the Australian Republic Movement, which I chair. Our social media, our memberships, our donations, our profile, are all surging! This is not a reflection of them personally, just a function of focus – on the ludicrousness of Australia, in the 21st century, still determining who is our head of state, according to who is born first into each generation of a particular family of English aristocrats! We are getting there, though, and this week has helped. Camilla and Prince Charles pose with the Commonwealth Games mascot, Borobi. Credit:AAP Image/ AFP Pool/ William West Joke of the Week Walking through the bush, Gary and Griff come across a dingo licking its privates. After watching for a few minutes, Griff says to Gary, "Just between you and me, I’ve wanted to do that all my life." A bemused Gary looks at him and says, ‘Go ahead, mate, but I’d pat him first. He looks pretty vicious to me.”

Quotes of the Week “The appearance of Prince Charles and Camilla seemed strangely out of sync with the theme of the night. If there was ever a moment that seemed to indicate the monarchy was an anachronism in modern Australia, this was surely it. England's centrality to the Commonwealth Games remains inescapable, of course, but that link couldn't help seem diminished in the grand time scale of our Indigenous culture. Phil Lutton, reporting from the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games for Fairfax. “Winnie Mandela leaves a huge legacy and, as we say in African culture, a gigantic tree has fallen.” Mandela family spokesman Victor Dlamini about the death of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

“At the time, when you asked a porn star who they've been sleeping with and the answer is Donald Trump, it was like the least surprising thing that she could have said.” Seth Rogen to Ellen DeGeneres, saying Stormy Daniels told him 10 years ago she was having an affair with the man who is now American president, and why it was no big deal. “This is what it's all about, jobs and growth.” Malcolm Turnbull, I think probably on coal, but it could be on anything. “We decided we wanted to walk the last mile together.”

Harold Holland, 83, of Kentucky, on remarrying Lillian Barnes, 78, 50 years after divorcing. “We’re madder than hornets, and the hornets are swarming today.” Claudette Green, US retired teacher and principal, as thousand of teachers in Kentuky and Oklahoma walked off the job. “Go Aus.” Slogan painted in green and yellow on the side of some cows near the Commonwealth Games,