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The wanderer has returned. Mr Albanese doesn't earn air miles on government flights, and he has had some flak. But he's back and defiant. He will be going to the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji next week.
But being out of the country as the floodwaters rose seemed like a good stick to beat him with after the drubbing Mr Morrison got for being in Hawaii during the bushfires.
Mr M also made a rod for his own back by saying: "I don't hold a hose, mate" - that "mate" adding a little extra sneer at the very suggestion that he should be at home while homes burned.
The phrase was used by Labor in the election. Mr Morrison's "Hawaii moment" helped bring on his defeat.
So if you are in opposition for at least the next three years, it's worth a go.
Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan described the Prime Minister's absence during the NSW floods as "concerning". But it won't wash. Mr Albanese isn't saying: "But I can't row a boat, mate."
He is actually doing important work. The international situation has been utterly transformed for the worse.
There is a war in Ukraine. China looks very much as though it has done a deal with a Pacific island state near Australia, and that deal may involve the use of ports capable of taking military ships.
On Wednesday, the heads of the UK and US security services (MI5 and the FBI) warned that China was engaged in a massive effort to steal patents and technological developments. "Game-changing", "immense" and "breath-taking" were the words they used.
This effort involved cyber-espionage but also simple theft where people linked to Chinese companies had dug up genetically-modified seeds in rural America to get a technology that would otherwise cost billions and years in research.
In this environment, should Mr Albanese not have gone to Tokyo to meet the leaders of Japan, the US and India? Should he not have gone to meet President Macron? Or gone to the NATO summit?
Or to Kyiv to show solidarity with a country under egregious attack from despotic Russia? It was hardly a holiday on the beach in Hawaii.
But there is sometimes no justice in politics. The wrong people sometimes get the praise and the blame.
If he's still clocking up the non-airmiles in six months, the charge may start to stick.
HAVE YOUR SAY: What do you think about Mr Albanese's travels? What do you make of the Coalitions' criticisms? Were there any of these overseas missions he should have dropped? Is his travel really any different from Mr Morrison's? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au/
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Charges alleging Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery broke the law by revealing classified information will be dropped on the orders of new federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Mr Collaery, a 77-year-old former ACT attorney-general, was due to stand trial in October to answer five charges alleging breaches of the Intelligence Services Act.
- Australians as young as 30 will soon receive their fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose after new advice from the nation's peak medical advisory body.
- Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed the Australian Technical Advisory Body on Immunisation had specifically recommended fourth vaccine doses for Australians aged 50 and over.
THEY SAID IT: "The people are immensely likable - cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted, and unfailingly obliging. Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water. They have a society that is prosperous, well ordered, and instinctively egalitarian. The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn't get much better than this." Bill Bryson writing on Australians in In a Sunburned Country.
YOU SAID IT: You had interesting things to say about the barely credible break-down of government in Britain.
"I had to undertake a psychological test when applying to be a humble Brisbane bus driver, but people can stand for president and prime minister with no constraint at all," Daniel said.
On Boris Johnson, Heather said: "He is a prime example of a typical self opiniated politician. Sadly people elect them to positions of power, and their egos make them consider themselves completely invincible and not accountable for their actions or decisions."
"Party politics globally are being exposed for what they are (puppets of the upper echelon criminal organisations) of which many have known for decades and longer!" Darrell said, adding: "It wouldn't be surprising at all that Boris Johnson had once slept on a roundabout in Canberra, given his partying record."
Guns in America are still in people's minds, and the literal way in which the Constitution is interpreted by the Supreme Court.
"How many have read the two simple sentences that actually form the 2nd Amendment?" Brad asks. "The first talks about rallying a militia against an imminent threat. The second is the individual right to 'bear arms'. When does grammar suggest the 2nd is more important than the 1st? Only when gun marketeers and right-wing extremists hold the balance of power."
David says: "Australia needs to plan for the probability that our most powerful ally will fall apart."
Keep your thoughts coming. There are always too many to include all of them but they are all read and appreciated.