It is party room meeting day, which means parliament won’t sit until midday. It seems like both major parties want to try and have some downtime, so don’t be too surprised if it goes very q word (it is a jinx in journalism to use the q word, much like wishing someone luck in a theatre.

It is the last party room meeting of the year though, which will mean there is a lot of rah rah (and attempts at rah rah in the Coalition) but it is also the festive drinks season, so there will be media drinks at the Lodge, the opposition drinks at parliament, the Greens drinks (usually off-site) and a hodge podge of crossbench drinks.

I have a rule now of not attending (and haven’t for years) because I try not to cross the streams as much as possible and that includes standing around and making small talk with people I am meant to be holding to account. That doesn’t mean I never see these people, but it’s always clear it’s for work.