As a tough year finds its denouement, there may still be reasons to give thanks - if only for who we are not.

True, it was the year we squandered an inter-generational chance at justice for First Peoples.

True also there were five more rate rises on top of eight in 2022 driving some households and businesses over the edge.

But look abroad.

A calamitous territorial war in Europe entered its second deadly annum confirming the grim reality of more to come. And of course a whole new war exploded in the Middle-East reliving the barbarism and even some of the language of the 20th century - i.e. before the UN and the rules-based-order were invented to prevent such violence.

While Australia's parliament passed ground-breaking worker protections for victims of domestic violence among other things, Afghanistan, which the West (Australia included) handed back to the misogynistic Taliban, will henceforth jail victims of domestic violence "for their own protection". Women's shelters are to be immediately shuttered.

And as a final act of multilateral mediocrity for the year, COP28 was hosted - or was it roasted - by a petrostate. It took two weeks to arrive at the stunning conclusion that the world should transition away from fossil fuels - surely the raison d'etre for the previous 27 meetings, no?

A visual metaphor sprang to mind. That of "Florence", the giant tunnel-boring machine stuck in soft ground for a year (until last week) while excavating Snowy 2.0........

© The Examiner