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They are separate, inter-linked and important. One is the paradoxical decline of green politics and an international green leader, the second is the damage, serious though not critical, to the Australia-Indonesia relationship. And the third is the short but staggeringly incompetent record of the Gillard government in foreign policy.

Let's consider them one by one. The sudden demise of the Rudd prime ministership got much more international attention than the subsequent election campaign. Neither Julia Gillard nor Tony Abbott is well-known internationally and the campaign is so bereft of serious policy content as to be baffling...