OUR own ABC dominated the news cycle this past week, beginning with the shocking “Four Corners” revelations of cruelty to Aboriginal children in Darwin’s Don Dale detention facility. Some of the images were reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib horrors in Iraq and they quickly swept around the world, to Australia’s shame.

PM Malcolm Turnbull’s immediate decision to hold a Royal Commission was well meant. But Aboriginal relations with Australia’s power structure will never be resolved until we hold a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that tells the real, unvarnished story since the British arrival in 1788. Until then, all talk of constitutional recognition, and even a treaty, is mere window dressing.

THE week ended with accusations on “7.30” of child sexual abuse by the Pope’s banker, Cardinal George Pell, which he hotly denied. They were being actively pursued by the Victorian police, but whether they constituted criminal offences was still undecided.

IN between, the Federal Cabinet wrestled with the decision whether to support former Labor PM Kevin Rudd in his bid to become UN secretary general.

As I discovered in the hours spent with him researching his biography, the UN role was always his ultimate ambition and the prime ministership merely a stepping stone on the way. So when Turnbull delivered the fatal blow Rudd would have been utterly devastated.

But don’t write him off just yet.

CLOSER to home, the ACT Libs bounced back from the departure of Brendan Smyth for a cosy billet as CM Andrew Barr’s commissioner for international engagement with the selection of former CityNews columnist (and radio jock) Mark Parton. He’ll be battling for a Tuggeranong seat in the forthcoming election, and in a contest where name recognition is half the battle, he looks good for a win.

WE were in Tuggeranong during the week signing books, and it looks very down-at-heel. It really needs a Parton (or some other livewire) to give it a shot in the arm.

OVERSEAS, the US presidential election went from bizarre to surreal. Daffy Donald actually called on Vladimir Putin to hack the emails of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. Little wonder former New York mayor, the independent Michael Bloomberg, called him “a dangerous demagogue” and told Americans to “elect a sane, competent person” in his stead.

THIS is the same Vladimir Putin whose Olympic team is drugged to the eyeballs as the sportsfest gears up for this week’s opening in Rio. Australia’s athletes finally moved into their village accommodation after the Brazilian tradies unblocked the toilets and insulated the electric wiring.

The good news is that Roy Slaven and HG Nelson have reunited to add a little humour to the occasion.

NOT much humour in evidence at the grand finale of “Masterchef” as Matt and Elena struggled to recreate a sugary pretend egg fashioned by the oddball Heston Blumenthal whose relationship to nutritious food is not unlike Putin’s to fairness in sport. But it was heart-warming the way Elena gave her opponent a helping hand as they raced to finish their comestibles.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see a little of that in Rio.

robert@robertmacklin.com.