St Nicholas left out the following
I am sure the Canberra cold weather shrinks politicians brains (amongst other things). And yes, all old fuddy duddy old geezers taking up valuable oxygen. They sit around in their silk suits while limousines line up outside waiting to jump to their every need, they potter about from luxurious office to office sitting on leather couches, breathing in the vapours of their 5 star lunch cuisine while they work out how to look like they are doing something while remaining non committal. They have meetings, lots of them, they talk, they discuss, they hypothesise, then they book the next 'international speaking engagement' to Greece, Italy, Canada or France which encompasses 2 hours work with the rest of the time spent looking at 'policies and processes' while staying at retreats, eating fine cuisine, touring the local tourist spots and cavorting with other like minded rorting dignitaries. Yes our hard working front benchers arise at 0300, have lunch at 1000, dinner at 1600 then lights out at 1830.
Oh the tough life of a bureaucrat with his/her snout buried in a trough or up a foreign Presidents ass. Indeed,"it's good to be the king"