Born in 2018

If you were born in 2018, Australian politics delivered yet another act of its ongoing soap opera. Malcolm Turnbull was removed by his own party in August — Peter Dutton challenging, Scott Morrison eventually winning the leadership and becoming Prime Minister, Turnbull walking out of politics entirely. The imagery of Turnbull leaving Parliament House with his belongings was striking.

The banking Royal Commission's hearings were devastating — the banks, the financial planners, the insurance companies, all shown to have systematically exploited and defrauded customers, particularly the elderly and the vulnerable. The Hayne Royal Commission changed the Australian financial landscape. The cricket ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town — Cameron Bancroft sandpapering the ball, Steve Smith and David Warner implicated — was a sports story that became a morality story.

The captain and vice-captain resigned, the country was horrified, and the whole episode said something uncomfortable about Australian sporting culture's relationship with winning. Childcare costs, energy prices, wage stagnation — the economic conversations were increasingly about what wasn't working for ordinary people. The flat white was $5.

50. The housing market was softening. The beach at Christmas was still there.

The country remained beautiful and its politics remained chaotic.