Maurice Newman has refused meet with scientists about his comments. After all, scientists are part of that whole conspiracy that began with the Age of Enlightenment. They probably even suggest that just transporting convicts to Australia won’t actually put an end to crime.

Mr Newman, like Tony Abbott, arrived in Australia by boat from England as a young boy, but neither were convicts as the English stopped sending their convicts here some time before either of them arrived. In the twentieth century, they only sent people who understood the superiority of the English class system while preferring the Australian weather.

Mm, perhaps there is a strong case for stopping the boats, after all.