Sacking heads of government agencies he doesn't personally approve of, standing up for the right of financial advisers to rip off as they see fit, condoning the mining industry's effective defecation over the Great Barrier Reef, chucking World Heritage values out the window, paying big companies to pretend they're combating climate change. And forget the 'haves' and the 'have nots', it's now about shaping society into the predators and the prey.

We've all been taken a bit unawares, I think. Like stunned mullets.

'Maybe he's showing strong leadership?'

'Maybe this can only be good for the country; some people (other people, not me) could do with a good shake-up.'

And now this:

Apparently it's OK for anyone to publicly "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate", basically say anything they think.

But will it be "anyone"?

I can see that the proposal to relax laws on defamation and racial slurs is at the very least aimed at clearing a path for the media attack dogs, from the safety of their Murdoch lairs, to savage anyone who stands up for pathetic issues such as women's rights and to needle proletarian mobs into battering each other into oblivion. Andrew Bolt, for example, could be made immune from prosecution, no matter what social mayhem he contrives. It'd be safer to remove the muzzle from a rabid pit bull in a kindergarten. 

We saw what can be achieved during the Australia Day Cronulla riots a few years ago. An all-in race-fuelled ugly brawl? Or entertainment for the rest of us, aghast and righteous onlookers? Alan Jones was prosecuted for enflaming the mêlée but maybe this is suggesting he should in fact have been celebrated as an entrepreneur. 'Sir Alan Jones', 'Sir Andrew Bolt' - it does have a fiendish ring about it.

Surprisingly, I watched Tony Abbott in Parliament recently as he complained bitterly about "slurs and innuendo" from the Opposition, particularly the "offensive" digs at his beloved knights and dames. Will this only work one way?  Is a double standard to apply? Either Tony Abbott is supremely devious or he's just plain thick. Given the big ears and the way he speaks so slowly at times strongly suggests the latter.

Another surprise was Quentin Bryce, a proponent of Australia becoming a republic, suddenly becoming a Dame. Maybe she was a little stunned too.

I hope by now I have demonstrated to you, dear reader, that saying or writing whatever one wants, however one wants, could indeed have a lot of appeal, especially in the way that it engenders rational debate and fosters a well-mannered, tolerant and respectful society. 

Don't look so stunned!