I can no longer get through a Janet Albrechtsen column since she like so many others over at The Oz has gone beyond ridiculous as shills for our new PM. But really, this is just stupid.

The current PM deserves an A ­because so far so good.

Malcolm Turnbull earns early good marks too for setting a new tone and focus. Positive words are no substitute for good policy but there is undeniable power in a dose of upbeat leadership.

Turnbull’s can-do attitude (even if he hasn’t done much yet) makes a change from the wet blanket worn by Tony Abbott as PM, whose whingeing about the Senate grew tiresome. Turnbull’s approach to the still recalcitrant Senate is different, and welcome. But again, it’s only so far so good.

I don’t know whether she caught her paper’s front page this morning, you know, where it talks about debt and the never-to-arrive surplus. Well we shall see how Mr Positive deals with all of this.

The government is on track to spend more than $21 billion a year on interest payments on commonwealth debt — more than it spends on public hospitals — as it puts off a budget surplus until early next decade.

A grim update to the federal budget shows that government spend­ing is growing faster than planned while tax revenue has fallen short of forecasts issued just seven months ago, widening this year’s deficit to $37.4bn and inflicting greater damage in later years.

Scaling back its ambitions, the government yesterday talked of delivering budget surpluses “as soon as possible” but abandoned a forecast by Joe Hockey in May that promised a surplus by 2019-20. Instead, small surpluses would be delivered from 2020-21.

Well, Janet, what do you think about all of that? And how do you suppose fixing any of it can be done with the Senate the way it is? Such muddled reasoning really is an irritation and not the best way to start the day.