Tony Abbott refuses to comply with the speaker deal that his party initially agreed to (though somebody forgot to tell Alex Somlyay, who apparently wants to be the deputy speaker). Bob Katter responds:

“I think he has established a most unfortunate reputation for himself… I think he is going in there with an adversarial attitude and is not seeing the bigger picture and I think that he’s making a very bad political judgement there. The people are also sick and tired of this sort of approach.”

This is sensible politics on the part of the Coalition, our Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane said yesterday.

But if Katter’s right, the people don’t want sensible politics — not in that sense.

They want that other p-word. No, not paradigm. Say it with us:

pol·i·cy

/ˈpɒləsi/ Show Spelled[pol–uh-see]

–noun, plural -cies.

1. a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc.: We have a new company policy.

2. a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc.: our nation’s foreign policy.

3. action or procedure conforming to or considered with reference to prudence or expediency: It was good policy to consent.

4. sagacity; shrewdness: Showing great policy, he pitted his enemies against one another.
5. rare . government; polity.

Let’s see if they have any chance of getting it.