As the political year comes to its end and we take a look back we see a littered landscape of broken promises and false starts from all sides.

We have seen the rise and fall of Clive Palmer, the rise of Jacqui Lambie, and Julie Bishop stepping out into the full glare of the spotlight, while sightings of Bill Shorten have become rarer than budget bills passing the Senate.

Having collated what we think is a charitable assessment of the year into a compressed 60 seconds, our resident musician Denis Carnahan deploys a tune made famous by Sir Bob Geldolf for his charitable causes to sum up our year in politics

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/broken-promises-and-false-starts-federal-politics-2014-20141211-1256cy.html

More than ten agencies among 175 that are being targeted by the federal government to save $500 million over the budget forward estimates have already been scrapped, calling into question the extent of the savings claimed.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said on Saturday that jobs would be lost "across the public service" as a result of the savings measures, which are expected to be announced in full on Monday as part of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

Senator Cormann said News Corp Australia had published a "pretty comprehensive list" on Saturday of the agencies, bodies and committees that would be affected.

Among the 175 government bodies identified on the hit list are four councils and committees established by the Council of Australian Governments, which were scrapped a year ago as part of a plan to reduce the number of councils from 22 to eight.

This includes the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood, which has already been replaced with the Education Council.

The list also identifies the infrastructure coordinator as among the positions that will be scrapped. This position was abolished in September and replaced with a chief executive role as part of a restructure of government advisory body Infrastructure Australia.

"Having spent the past year re-announcing existing infrastructure projects and pretending they are new, they are now re-announcing old cuts," shadow infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese said.

But Senator Cormann told Fairfax Media that this was an "inclusive list" that "brings together all the bodies the government will abolish as part of our smaller government reforms", which is now in its third tranche.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/questions-raised-about-savings-from-axing-175-government-agencies-20141213-126ht5.html

This Abbott regime is the government for unemployment. So far, hundred of thousand people have lost their job, been dismissed or sacked without thanks... Enterprises that could (should) have been saved were let go by the government and this Turdy government has not saved one cent yet. To the contrary, the economy is going south... The more people are sacked, the higher the unemployment and the less people have disposable cash to keep the economy ticking... It's a bit as if these monkeys, from Hockey to Abbott, had decided to blow up the economy with their unfair budget and put people on the scrap heap at the same time to double the pain. Bloody cigar chomping sadist... They should sack themselves.

The only saving grace is the low price of gasoline which has been designed to hurt the Russians. When the economy was cooking under Gillard, the Aussie dollar was above parity with the US greenback. Now thanks to the Abbott tanking economy — ALL THE FAULT OF ABBOTT, HOCKEY AND CORMANN and their acolytes — the Aussie dollar has lost 25 per cent of its value since the elections... It's a mixed blessing, but really it shows that the Abbott Regime is incompetent, infantile, petty, puerile, idiotic, stupid and deluded as unemployment is shooting through the roof.

A veterans group says the Federal Government's decision to axe a number of agencies and groups that help returned service men and women is "crass stupidity".

The Government will tomorrow formally announce it is abolishing almost 200 agencies in a bid to save $500 million over four years when it hands down the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) tomorrow.

Groups to be axed include the Vietnam Veterans' Education Centre Advisory Panel and a medicines and therapeutic advice group for veterans.

Vietnam Veterans' Association vice-president Peter Ryan said he could not believe the move.

"[It's] crass stupidity. Whoever is advising the Government on this has no concept of reality," Mr Ryan said.

"These programs are designed to help our people with their health and wellbeing and the Government is cutting these programs. Why does the Government want to hurt veterans?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-14/myefo-veterans-group-attacks-crass-stupidity-of-proposed-cuts/5965814

Oil company Inpex has shed around 1,400 jobs from its Icthys construction project near Darwin, forcing many families to brace for a tough Christmas season.

The number of job cuts was planned, with the civil works phase of the LNG project nearing completion.

But unions are upset at the abruptness of the job cuts, saying it is flooding the local market with unemployed blue collar workers.

Sacked worker Kylie Wright said it was a terrible time of year to have no income.

"Over the holiday season, you're kids are going to be let down, your grandkids are going to be let down," she said.

The 43-year-old mother of two said she was angry at the company for the way they handled the layoffs.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-14/inpex-sheds-1400-jobs-just-before-christmas/5963254

All they need now is another cyclone for Christmas to top things up... Remember Tracy?...