Another year, another round of political corruption to deal with. Scott Morrison claimed "a miracle" caused him to win the 2019 election but, as with most claims of divine intervention, that old human frailty of vice and corruption proved to be the real answer. The Liberal–National Government had a cash splash fund of almost $500 million dollars to throw at marginal and Coalition-held seats – funding programs that had no guidelines, no application forms, little oversight, and a rorting scheme that Vladimir Putin could be proud of.

And if that wasn't enough, the Australian Federal Police dropped the forgery case against Angus Taylor: nothing to see here, please move along. It's obvious the Liberal–National Government is too close to the AFP – the AFP investigates the issues that are favourable to the government, but ignores the issues that are unfavourable to the government. It's not the way an open and democratic system should operate, and trust in government is plummeting even further.

So what can be done about this? We commence our series on solutions to a sick democracy, and make suggestions for how to improve accountability in the parliament: an independent speaker and ditching the Dorothy Dix questions. That would be a good start.