And it goes on.

Stoushing on the government’s infrastructure bill revolved around Coalition claims that it would enable a slush fund for porkbarrelling. A last minute about face by Shadow Cabinet recognised the reality that opposing it, with the House rejecting Senate amendments, might be a bad look – as such opposition could easily be painted as frustrating the desire to stimulate the economy. But the Nationals had drawn their own line in the sand – basically, because they wanted to ensure that the principle of porkbarrelling for rural and regional electorates endured! The result? Malcolm Turnbull was exposed as unable to enforce any sort of discipline on his own party:

There were another two hours of debate before the bill was brought to a vote. And when it was, only Senators Johnston, Ronaldson, Brandis, Coonan, Mason and Troeth from the Liberals voted for the unamended bill, although Mason missed the division on the sale of Telstra funds. Senators Eggleston and Ferguson voted with the Nationals in favour of the amendments. This was the second time in a week that Eggleston, from Western Australia, has stood apart from his colleagues, having joined Petro Georgiou earlier this week in backing changes to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers.

Johnston, Ronaldson, Brandis and Coonan are all shadow Cabinet members and thus are bound by Cabinet solidarity. Mason is a Parliamentary Secretary. According to the ABC, there was confusion within the Coalition over who was required to vote and who was allowed to abstain, and reports of Coalition senators trying to bolt the chamber before the doors were locked for the vote.

The mass abstention was a poor look for Turnbull, especially with his Senate leader being amongst their number.

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Earlier in the year conventional wisdom among the punditariat had it that the opposition did better when Parliament was sitting, although the mysterious permeation of parliamentary theatrics into the electorate never showed up in the polls. But what we’ve seen this week is Parliament focusing on substantive legislation – so attention isn’t just on the bells, whistles and alarums of question time. When what goes on actually matters, Malcolm Turnbull has proved completely unable to paper over the divisions in the ramshackle mob he leads, and the fact that shows when the division bills ring is proof that his leadership hasn’t been some sort of magic bullet. The Liberals and the Nationals end the parliamentary year as they began it – divided and disunited with poor leadership. That should start to set some thinking about the enduring nature of their problems, and the fact that these problems aren’t able to be solved by the obligatory leadership messiah.

Elsewhere: Guy Beres.

The argument about the national curriculum is quite bizarre from the mob who spent years telling us all how essential such a requirement was. But anyway…