The ongoing controversy about what is happening to asylum seeker boats off Australia’s northern coastline dominated political coverage this week, as the government continues to refuse to comment about “on water” matters, with a number of Australian journalists now regularly reporting from Indonesia on turned back boats. The lack of comment from the Government didn’t stop Immigration Minister Scott Morrison from bumping up into second place.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne started another social media storm by announcing a review of the national curriculum. It will be undertaken by two staunch critics of it, Kevin Donnelly and Professor Ken Wiltshire, among claims the appointees will be seeking to expunge a perceived left-wing bias, particularly in the history curriculum. Pyne took to the Australian’s opinion pages to explain the move, while most other media questioned the credibility of the appointees given their public statements.

Victorian Speaker Ken Smith jumped back in to the list after announcing he would not seek re-election later this year, in an attempt to take the heat off his current position. The most interesting no-shows are both the Treasurer and shadow treasurer. We can’t remember the last time the Treasurer didn’t make the top 20, and Chris Bowen was not mentioned at all this week . The economic battle clearly only runs 11 months a year these days.

Crikey Political Index: January 9-15

Back in the Labor days, the PM would almost always be a mile in front in this category, but not so these days, as talkback devolves more and more to state issues. And still no sign of Scott Morrison.

Talkback top five

The “culture wars” are definitely on in the social media sphere, with Christopher Pyne occupying the position of ire occupied by one Senator Cory Bernardi last week. The battles tend to be very short-lived though, so we wait to see whose turn it is next week.

Social media top five

Another year, another gong (with probably more to come) for our Cate.

Comparison of media mentions