And tonight the Gold Logie goes to… the one and onlyClive Frederick Palmer!

 This unapologetic human headline has eaten up more newspaper column inches over the last year than Silver Logie winners Bob Katter and Jacqui Lambie combined.

 But that is where the jokes about inches must stop.

 Given the turmoil we saw under Rudd and Gillard, we can all be thankful that Jacqui Lambie wasn’t around for the hung parliament!

 Nevertheless, the PUPs, and their dear leader Clive, have provided some of the more memorable moments of the 44th Parliament.

 There were his comments about China on the ABC’s Q&A that threatened to undermine our relationship with 1.2 billion people; his double act with Al Gore, a man better known for his views on hanging and half-pregnant chads and for inventing the internet than his photo-ops with fossil fuel barons; and then, of course, there is Clive’s occasional nap on the green leather in the House.

 It has been said that the caustic exchanges between the parties during Question Time is so boring that it can put a listener to sleep.

 After Clive’s example such a statement is no longer a figure of speech, showing what too many interjections from Plibersek and Shorten can literally do.

 Even when Clive does attend the chamber for Question Time, he may not stay long.

 Just last week we had the misfortune to hear at his press conference about how he had to leave the House for a toilet break, and then proceeded to tell us a bit more than we needed to know.

 This would have been one of the very few press conferences ever held in Parliament House when the Press Gallery would have thought to themselves, ‘less is more’.

 With Clive, one could go on – his Rolls Royce and its place in the parliamentary car park, the Palmersaurus that roams his resort, and a new Titanic replica which looks unlikely to sail again.                          Indeed, this column could be all about Clive, which is no doubt what he would want it to do.

 But that would let Labor off too lightly, and we would not want to be accused of that.

 But even though Kevin Rudd has physically left the building, his ghost lingers on.

 Every other week, one of his former colleagues releases their own book, providing their version of who said what and to whom during the Rudd-Gillard years, otherwise known in this place as the political equivalent of the Thirty Years’ War.

 The empty tomes of Greg Combet, Wayne Swan, Chris Bowen, Bob Carr and soon-to-be Julia Gillard, can be found on the shelves of every good ABC Shop and university library.

 Even the golden oldies like Gareth Evans have been keen to get in on the act, with his recount of the gladiatorial Cabinet contest between Hawke and Keating.

 The fact that three decades on Paul Keating’s bitterness is yet to subside gives us a snapshot of the kind of speech Kevin Rudd will give when he launches Anthony Albanese’s diaries in September 2044.

 But at least Labor’s book launches have plenty of zing.

 Something tells me that when Tony Abbott launches John Howard’s Menzies Library this week, you won’t hear him utter the words ‘midget’, ‘nudity’, and ‘banana lounge briefing’, let alone all in the one sentence.

 All in all, the first year of the first term of the Abbott Government has been one to remember.

 The Coalition has so many achievements to be proud of with the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes, stopping the boats, and commencing the process of budget repair.

 However, the headlines have definitely been dominated by the PUPs and Labor.

 Unfortunately for them and for us, it has been for all the wrong reasons.