The year that never was

When I was growing up, our local bank manager was a trusted and revered pillar of society. Now, its almost impossible to find a bank manager, let alone an honest one. You have to phone someone in a far away head office and the sad fact is that whoever you finally speak to is not there to help you but to find some way to charge you unjustifiable fees.

The sheer depravity of our financial institutions, as discovered by the Royal Commission, is hard to believe, as is their ability to pay their executives such huge bonuses that a sheer robbery of the funds of shareholders and customers.

I do know some bankers who are trustworthy people, but it is sad to live in a society where it is actually naive to trust a bank.

Then, to cap it off, Australia once more proved how expertly amateurish we are at knocking off our Prime Ministers.

The demise of Malcolm Turnbull was hugely disturbing because it was done in such a ham-fisted way that bordered on insanity.

Firstly, we must acknowledge that Turnbull had no political nous whatsoever and caused his own downfall by opening up his leadership to a challenge when there was absolutely no need to do so. If he had not done that, he would still be Prime Minister today.

However, when he let the vultures loose, the callous and bloodthirsty manner in which he was cut down was horribly disgraceful and cruelly nasty.

And the fact that 45 Liberals, some of whom are grossly incompetent politicians, were able to decide alone who should be our Prime Minister is fundamentally wrong. Their decision to do so was a desecration of democracy as were the plots that removed Rudd, Gillard and Abbott.

There are other depressing issues we could talk about such as Australia's appallingly inept Energy policies and our childish denial of climate change as well as international matters like the Brexit farce. Then there is the gross embarrassment of having Trump as the leader of the Western World, as well as our regret of the sad demise of Angela Merkel who has been a great leader of Europe.

But, before I get too downhearted, let me say that my faith in the huge potential of Australia has not diminished. All that we need is a Parliament of quality to give us inspired leadership.

The current one will see huge changes at the next election. No matter which Party wins, there will be a lot of new faces in the new Parliament replacing many who should never have been elected in the first place.

My hope is that, over the next decade, we will see the demise of the Liberals, Labor Nationals and Greens and their replacement by two new Parties.