Perhaps he is a stayer. The apparent willingness of Malcolm Turnbull to return to the Opposition front bench is a sign that the former Liberal leader is a stayer after all. Since being replaced by Tony Abbott, Turnbull has not said whether he intends to continue in politics after the next election but it would be strange for him not to do so if he was prepared to become shadow finance minister.

Staying on to me seems a sensible thing for an ambitious man to do. If and when the Liberals are defeated later this year,  Abbott’s star will not be shining nearly as brightly within the Liberal Party as it is now. The search will be on for a successor and there is no one else in sight with the intelligence and ability of the Member for Wentworth.

A lack of judgement. The relief within Liberal Party ranks at the replacement of Barnaby Joyce from a position of importance in the shadow ministry is very evident. The Queensland Senator was an embarrassment to his colleagues. Yet the big loser from yesterday’s announcement was not Senator Joyce himself but Tony Abbott. It confirmed that his headstrong ways, which led to the appointment in the first place, are no way to run an Opposition let alone a government. Perhaps that is what Malcolm Turnbull has come to realise!

As for Barnaby. The best thing for Barnaby Joyce to do if he really does want to help the coalition win the next election is to return to his position outside the shadow ministry. That he is incapable of ever being a team player was shown this morning when he could not resist taking a swipe at some his federal coalition colleagues. Telling ABC radio that “you can’t campaign against anonymous sources from your side” was all the confirmation needed. Yet again Tony Abbott has shown a lack of judgement. He should have just sacked the man instead of trying to give him a face-saving position.

Talk of punitive tariffs. When they start talking in the United States Senates about punitive tariffs on Chinese products, the rest of us should start worrying. A new bout of international protectionism is just what Australia does not need. Yet American belligerence about the value of the Chinese currency is growing with Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham crafting a law that would slap import duties on Chinese goods to offset what they believe is the low value of its currency. The two Senators also want the Barack Obama administration to formally label China a currency manipulator in a semi-annual Treasury Department report due on April 15.

For their part, Chinese officials continue to maintain that changing the exchange rate was not the way to fix a huge bilateral trade gap, and that it could upset the global economy. “Revaluing the renminbi is not a good recipe for resolving problems,” vice-commerce minister Zhong Shan told the US Chamber of Commerce this week. “It is in nobody’s interest — China’s, the US’ or other countries’ — to see big ups in the renminbi or big downs in the dollar.”