Today was the first sitting day of Parliament after the horrible, draconian, evil future that Australia’s stupid voters unwittingly unleashed upon themselves (or so the newspapers were claiming). That is, today was the first day that John Howard was able to play with his new Senate majority.

But contrary to the stories of the doom and gloom that would befall us when that crazy new Queenslander and his comrades took their seats, today was marked by the same old party bickering that always seems to go on in Canberra.

As usual the anti-Howard crowd are moaning that this is the beginning of the end, but I wonder if it’ll just be a continuation of business as usual. Today, at least, was an example of the latter … but how long will things stay like that?