Breach Port Statistics secrecy and end up in the slammer. Breach the secrecy provisions of the Port Statistics Act and you can face three months in the slammer. Now I have no idea what this Port Statistics Act is actually about but with a name like that I find it hard to believe that any secrecy provisions are needed in the first place. So, apparently, do some of those working on an inquiry into Commonwealth Secrecy laws for the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC). The ALRC President, Professor David Weisbrot, drew special attention to it when releasing a community consultation paper yesterday which seeks ideas and feedback about how we balance the need to maintain the secrecy and confidentiality of some government documents with a commitment to increased openness and transparency.

Perhaps it is just because I spent a year or two in my youth back in the Commonwealth Public Service Board working on this very subject that makes me think that this Review of Secrecy Laws (Issues Paper 34)  is one of the more important documents released under this first year Labor Government. It surely deserves to be taken very seriously because it goes right to the heart of the way we are governed.

The ALRC has so far identified 370 distinct secrecy provisions. These provisions are scattered throughout 166 pieces of primary and subordinate legislation. The majority of the secrecy provisions identified by the ALRC to date establish one or more criminal offences. Most of these are indictable offences — that is, offences punishable by imprisonment for a period exceeding 12 months. The remainder are summary offences — that is, offences which are not punishable by imprisonment, or are punishable by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months. The ALRC has identified only one civil penalty provision in its mapping exercise.

The Port Statistics Act is in the summary category as are the secrecy provisions in the Dental Benefits Act and the Dairy Produce Act.

The strange merger gets ever stranger. The strange political beast created by the merger of the Nationals and the Liberals in Queensland looks stranger with every passing day. At a state level there may be relative peace and harmony between the two sections but federally this Liberal National Party is clearly a joke.

Barnaby Joyce for one continues to act as if nothing has changed except perhaps that the division between Nationals and Liberals is greater than it has ever been. He really has humiliated Malcolm Turnbull by refusing to join the leadership team in the Federal Parliament and is set on having Senate Nationals run their own race in the Senate.

That might best serve his own personal interest but it clearly makes a mockery of the idea that Queensland now has one united conservative force. The Queensland Premier Anna Bligh must be delighted. Pointing to the strange hybrid that is the LNP will be a major part of her election campaign next year.

Take a long holiday Malcolm. Malcolm Turnbull might as well just take a long holiday. There is nothing he can say and do for the next three or four months that will have any impact on his public standing.

The Newspoll figures out this morning show the Opposition Leader is having no impact whatsoever on what the public think about Kevin Rudd and his Labor team. The mob like the Prime Minister and his serious ways. Criticising someone who is as popular as he is gets you absolutely nowhere. Trying to tarnish his image just puts you further behind.

Frustrating as it may be, the only sensible thing for the Coalition to do is sit quietly and wait. It is what happens rather than what an opponent says is happening or might happen that will determine what Australians think of this government.

Presumably as the summer progresses and economic growth continues at a low level, or perhaps even disappears altogether, unemployment will begin its inexorable rise. It is when school leavers can not find a first job and their parents begin losing theirs that the gloss will begin to wear off.

Come June — after the next budget — will be the time for Liberals to start considering whether they made the right choice in choosing Malcolm Turnbull as their Leader.