The killing of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran is dominating all news today, with Australia’s ambassador recalled, in an unprecedented step, and a fair degree of uncertainty about what the longer term ramifications for one of Australia’s most important relationships might be. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Shadow Foreign Minister Tanya Plibersek are expectedly high on this list.

In other coverage, you would imagine press gallery journalists are not surprised at all that the lead up to this year’s federal budget seems far quieter than last year. There’s little to no strategic leaking, no talk of toughness and hard decisions for the good of the country, and certainly no cigar chomping. Will the government manage to get next fortnight’s budget through quietly and quickly? Quite possibly, with most business commentators feeling now is the time for deficits, although a couple of budget hawks will surely have something to say if it is indeed lacking in any significant spending cuts or revenue increases.

Meanwhile there was of course a huge amount of coverage of the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day and also up the list was Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who declared the first direct action emissions auction a rampant success, although most media questioned whether it’s that, or our general economic malaise, collapse in domestic manufacturing and households previous strong take-up of solar panels, that are the real reason we are on target to beat our 5% reduction target in 2020. Greens leader Christine Milne thought all that was irrelevant as, in her view, our target should have been 25%, not 5%.

Crikey Political Index: April 23-29

Lower numbers for the PM this week, but climate change is still clearly an issue of concern for many on social media.

Social Media Top Five

Not so much on talkback, which was largely devoid of political discussion this week, the focus fairly and squarely on Anzac Day.

Talkback Top Five

Underneath all the discussion about the particular topic Scott McIntyre chose to expound on and whether it was legally and/or morally right for SBS to sack him, is the question of where the corporation ends and the person begins on social media. I’m not sure anyone really knows the answer at the moment.

Comparison of media mentions