I USED to be a hopeless news addict but since the election of the Abbott Government I’ve beaten it. In fact, I now find it almost impossible to watch “The Drum”, “Q&A”, “7.30” or even the news bulletins (except for the cricket) on the ABC, much less the commercial channels.

I should be happier about busting the addiction. Trouble is, it’s not news per se, it’s the content, the image it presents of Australia in 2014 that has become my aversion therapy.

I’m appalled, for example, by our relations with Indonesia and China. I have travelled many times in both countries and every occasion has been an enjoyable one. They are perfectly pleasant people and potentially our most important regional friends in this exciting Asian century. Yet through ham-fisted diplomacy and a reactionary attachment to Abbott’s beloved Anglosphere, we suddenly find ourselves in danger of becoming serious adversaries.

I’m dismayed by a government that would set up a Royal Commission into the pink batts program which the previous government has already confessed was hastily arranged to counter the international financial crisis. And while four workers died during the roll out this was no more than the average in the industry before and after. It’s simply a blatant political backhander.

A second Royal Commission into union corruption in the building industry is marginally more justified, but no less politically motivated. The return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission will accomplish the same clean-up of the industry, but without the political knockout punch Abbott clearly craves.

Rudd’s Government, of course, declined to pursue his Liberal predecessor’s involvement in the AWB corruption scandal with the Saddam Hussein regime when a war against the Iraqi leader cost nine lives of Australian servicemen and private contractors, many more wounded and still more victims to this day of debilitating PTSD… and all for nothing.

And now Labor appointees to plum diplomatic posts are being prematurely replaced by Liberal stalwarts whereas Rudd actually appointed Downer and Costello to important international posts.

That seems like a different era, when civility was a valued part of Australian politics.

All that changed when Mr Abbott replaced Malcolm Turnbull by a single vote on December 1, 2009. Suddenly a new zeitgeist was abroad in the land. But it was not until Abbott was guest commentator during the recent Ashes series that we discovered the intrinsic nature of his manic combativeness. His Oxford ‘blue’ for boxing, he said, was for four winning bouts in the heavyweight division, the last against a man a massive 12kg heavier than himself. It was a daunting task, he said, but “I just attacked. I never stopped. I just attacked and attacked until I’d worn him down and beaten him…until I’d won”. His fellow commentators were momentarily speechless.

But that, alas, is what our politics – and our news – has become: a chronicle of uninhibited aggression by the Government and an Opposition Leader in Bill Shorten who lacks the capacity – or even the inclination – to throw a decent counterpunch in defence of moderation.

Oh well, at least there’s “New Tricks” reruns to fill the empty hours.

robertmacklin.com