Seeing there’s a pretty good chance federal Parliament won’t be sitting next year, we thought we’d kick off this second tranche of The Bug’s Xcrements-of-the-Week with a fond farewell to long-serving MHR Bill Shorten who has just made his valedictory speech to the House.

What we’ll miss most are his famous zingers and he left us with a final one just as he’s about to leave politics for what we all hope will be good, as picked up by Glenn Gibson (above and below).

Sahar A also picked up on Bill’s zinger, albeit a slightly different version.

And for a general overview of Shorten’s time in politics, here’s Michael Springer, in conversation with Kos Samaras.

Very nice words indeed, and while The Bug will stay open-minded about what sort of PM Shorten would have made had he won the 2019 election – and many have disappointed once attaining the top job – we will just make the point that Bepo the Clown (pictured) would have made a better PM than Scott “I never bagged electric vehicles; they’re good technology” Morrison.

We’ll just remind all you BUGgers out there of Morrison’s “miracle” win back then, that followed Shorten and Labor’s brave/stupid campaign promises to grandfather negative gearing and scale back franking credit tax rorts, Clive Palmer’s $90 million anti-Shorten ad spend and the LNP’s late “death taxes” scare that even outdid Labor’s usual Medibank scare!

Shorten will be missed.

And seeing we’ve just mentioned the Liar from the Shire/the Crook from Cook, here are JayJay and Dr Josie McSkimming, the former asking a very valid question.

And we’ll give Sahar A a second xcretal plop on related matters.

Michael J Wyllie also had Abbott in his sights.

We didn’t see this debate but we’ll take Wyllie’s word for it. He’s a good man with very sensible xcrements xpertly squeezed out over a long time.

So, how will next year’s federal election pan out? Quentin Dempster gives us an insight on how Newcorpse is going to act, while Peter Murphy suggests what Anthony Albanese needs to do to get a second term.

Michael Secomb runs with a similar theme while leftie academic Scott Burchill gives us a chilling insight into what sort of government Dutton would lead.

The Bug will stick to its long-held view that criticising Israel’s genocide in Gaza is not being anti-semitic in any way, shape or form, regardless of what Paterson, Dutton and, sadly, Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong might say.

Let’s finish off with some wise philosophy from Barry Mulligan who put up a meme from @TRUTHTHEORY, and a Queensland-based observation from Politic@l Spinner.

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