The day before Thanksgiving is notable for an excruciating American tradition: the presidential turkey pardon. Yesterday, down under, there were two excruciating turkey pardons on the day before Thanksgiving.

Turkey pardon #1: The leader of the Opposition was pardoned by 48 of his Liberal Party colleagues. Meanwhile 35 of his “colleagues” voted against keeping the Turnbull turkey alive.

Turkey pardon #2: Mid-level treasury department officer Godwin Grech was pardoned by a Senate privileges committee for knowingly and deliberately giving false or misleading evidence to another Senate committee, despite its finding that “this is one of the worst cases of improper interference with the operations of a Senate committee that this committee has examined”.

thanksgiving-turkey

The point about the annual turkey pardon at the White House is that while one special turkey survives, tens of millions of other dead turkeys are being prepared to be devoured.

After their pardons yesterday, the real question remaining about the fate of Malcolm Turnbull and Godwin Grech is whether they are special turkeys or just like all the others.