‘Call it what it was, PM: a menacing attempt to increase anxiety in the Australian population,’ read the headline of an article by Mike Pezzullo last week. The most obvious attempt to increase public anxiety last week was the relentless beat up of tropical cyclone Alfred, the not-so-great, which was initially slated to be named Anthony and behaved exactly like the PM, dithering around off the Australian coast before dissolving into a tropical low.