Albanese finishes the year at the Lodge, will he finish 2024 there?

Instead, Australians should have seen the Prime Minister taking control of the Detention Disaster saga, and at least moved the two Ministers (Andrew Giles and Clare O'Neil) for extending the High Court ruling to other detainees, without a cogent and coherent explanation.

The High Court order of 8 November and the reasons provided on November 28, ordered the release of NZYQ, one Rohingya refugee from Myanmar alone.

That was the lone applicant before the High Court, at the time.

The Prime Minister should have been on the front foot to explain to the Australian public, why more than 140 other refugees were chosen to be released into the community, many of whom had been convicted of serious offending in Australia.

If all avenues open to Australia to resettle those (released) detainees had been already exhausted before November 8, the date of the High Court ruling, what was stopping the Prime Minister from swearing to it before the Australian public?

Had the Albanese government exhausted all options in each of the 145 plus detainees' case, including writing to the 'five-eyes' nations as it did in NZYQ's case?

Australians deserved to know.

It was absolutely incumbent on the PM to address the Australian public to reassure them that his government had a firm handle on the issue, in turn allaying any misgivings and safety concerns they would have had.

The other big issue on which the PM has been AWOL is the government's position on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Completely devoid of any cabinet solidarity, the Albanese government members are on record making incoherent statements on the issue.

Sadly, members seem to be running their electorate agenda on almost everything they perceive 'report worthy', which seems to be targeted more at their own re-election.

That in itself may not be wrong or bad for the country.

But the issue seems to be diving Australia into three – those who follow each side and the rest of us.