I watched Bolt this morning and the interview with Scott Morrison over Peter Dutton’s off-the-record but on-the-microphone comment. So this is where we now are, Peter Dutton apologises for microphone gaffe.

First, it was not a gaffe, it was a joke. In fact, it is the kind of joke that gives people like me some kind of hope that there are some amongst the Libs who understand climate change is a political scam, not the most urgent issue of our time.

Second, what is he doing apologising? Why isn’t the response something along the lines of – you guys in the media are such airheads that it is impossible to have an adult conversation with any of you around. The actual response, on the other hand, makes me think that these guys do not have the internal fortitude to do what needs doing:

“Obviously it was a private conversation – I should have realised the mike was there,” Mr Dutton told Sky News. “I didn’t; it was directly behind me. I made a mistake and I apologise to anyone who has taken offence to it. It was a light-hearted discussion with the PM and I didn’t mean any offence to anyone.

“If anyone has taken offence they should accept my apology. I’m disappointed that it allowed for a distraction from what was a very good policy announcement.”

Now imagine Donald Trump having been picked up by some stray microphone making a joke about some policy issue, especially one where to his own side he would be showing a bit of common sense. The most important change that may yet be wrought by Trump is his taking the media on. They are far left loons, and part of an amazingly uninformed, poorly educated cohort of journalists whose views, for the most part, are not worth the newspapers they are printed on. No self-respecting government should be forced to treat them seriously.