Hello and welcome to the last House sitting day and coverage of the ongoing estimates hearings.

We have almost made it. After this, there is a two week break and then we are into the final sittings of the year. There is a rumour we are going to all have to put up with an extra final sitting in December (which is very annoying) but that is still to be confirmed. We will keep you posted.

Last night estimates continued and the new managing director of the ABC, Hugh Marks experienced his first round of ABC-stimates. Which used to be favourite time of the year, and to be honest, it has never truly been the same since Abetz left. Sarah Henderson tries, but she doesn’t have the same impact. Abetz was unintentionally funny, which made it very, very funny as he waged his culture wars. Henderson is just annoying. It just doesn’t have the same pizazz.

As appearances go, Marks didn’t do too badly. He did reveal how much the ABC spent defending itself against the unlawful termination of Antoinette Lattouf – $2.5m. That’s before final settlement costs as well, and the costs hearing.

A reminder that Lattouf had wanted to settle for $85,000.

So not ideal. Marks told the committee mistakes had been made.

It should have been done better, and it wasn’t.”

Meanwhile, the Coalition is in the middle of a fight over who is leaking, which makes me think that a whole bunch of people spent 2009-2019 watching Buffy re-runs instead of studying how Labor managed to almost destroy itself by doing much the same thing.

None of this is complicated. Sussan Ley was not elected because she is the natural leader of the Liberal party – she was elected because she was not Angus Taylor. That’s still a party divided, particularly since Ley lost votes in the senate change over. Andrew Hastie has been weighing up for some time whether he wants to stay in the Liberal party, lead it, or start a new thing. This is obvious to anyone who was paying attention last term, and particularly during the election campaign, where he was obviously doing his own thing. Taylor is no longer seen as the natural successor to the right wing – he is a bit to Angus Taylor for that, but Hastie also doesn’t have the goods and so they are splitting the numbers. If you want attention at the moment (cough, cough Jacinta Price) then you back in Hastie, because that is where the headlines are. Is it where the leadership is? Wrong question. Does any of this matter? Right question and no. No it doesn’t.

Leaks from the Liberal review don’t do anything except confirm what we knew – it’s a mess, they don’t know what they are doing, where they are going, or how to stop walking off the cliff. And yet here we are.

Thanks for joining us on this three coffee morning as we try and wade through all of the muck. I’ve already done a round of radio commentary and have a bit more booked throughout the day, so let’s see how long it takes until the exasperation can no longer be held back. I’m thinking 8.10am (Canberra time). If I really, really try.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.