Within the space of a week, the federal Labor government managed to rack up one happy wedding, which they downplayed, and four miserable political performances which should have sounded the career death knell for those ministers involved. Quite the feat.

But first the wedding. Only a handful of ministers and MPs were invited, so it’s safe to assume that those who were in attendance see themselves as next in line to the prime ministership. Indeed, one can almost imagine the delight felt by each as they opened their wedding invitation.

This magazine and its readers wish the Prime Minister and Jodie Haydon a long, successful and happy marriage and congratulate them on their nuptials.

But among those wedding guests at the Lodge were also four of the worst performing ministers of this government. Four ministers whose careers deserved to be terminated by events and revelations of the past week, and whose downfalls would surely be imminent if we had a decent media and a strong opposition to hold them to account.

The first minister who deserves to be facing political death is Treasurer Jim Chalmers. With every passing day, it becomes increasingly apparent that Mr Chalmers is the worst treasurer this nation has ever seen, even worse than the appalling Wayne Swan. Put simply, Mr Chalmers is bankrupting this country and it is clear he has no understanding of how a productive economy functions and no concept of the damage he is inflicting on us all. Economic growth is falling. We were promised interest rates were coming down; they’re going up. We were promised inflation was under control; it isn’t. Productivity is in decline. Trillion-dollar debt is skyrocketing. There is a housing crisis. Investment is fleeing Australia and heading overseas. Energy prices are soaring with no end in sight within the decade. Employment growth is almost solely in the public sector. (Since Labor was elected, the number of public servants has grown by over 38,000.) There is a rumoured $15 billion black hole due to changes in tax on super. The entire economy, moreover, is being dragged down by the crippling costs of the ‘transition to renewables’ – a fool’s errand as anyone with an ounce of economic common sense will tell you. Mr Chalmers has never held a productive job and has never been responsible for a commercial spreadsheet. He was a disastrous choice to run the nation’s finances. He should be booted out today. His economic career and reputation deserve to be dead, buried and cremated.

Two other walking political corpses also popped up at the PM’s wedding – Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. These are two of the three senators labelled the ‘mean girls’ four years ago due to their alleged personal and professional involvement in the ‘Higgins cover-up’ scandal. The victims of this complicated and depressing saga arguably include the late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, as well as former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds and former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown.

Again, it is only because we have a cowardly opposition and compliant media that these two senators still have their jobs and haven’t resigned in disgrace. Certainly, politicians have stepped down over far less. Two judges have found there was no political cover-up of the alleged rape – yet this was the accusation repeatedly made by these two senators. Not only did this false accusation drive the final nail into the coffin of the Morrison government, as intended, it also inflicted immense personal harm.

There are many layers to the Higgins affair (not to mention lawsuits) but it is disingenuous, as Labor insist on doing, to muddy the waters between the alleged rape and the accusations of a political cover-up. Former PM Scott Morrison was beyond idiotic to make his foolish parliamentary apology at the time – thereby allowing the rape to be politicised and weaponised – but regardless, the vile behaviour of the two Labor senators, including the alleged vilification and mental abuse of their Liberal party colleague, a woman, should have them both not only thrown out of cabinet but out of public life altogether.

Which just leaves Tony Burke, the Immigration Minister. On Sky News Australia, Sharri Markson has revealed a damning story to do with the government’s role in allegedly turning a blind eye to the return of the so-called ‘Isis brides’.

In a period when this government has allowed antisemitism to run rampant, the suggestion that the Albanese government  allowed or failed to prevent, to whatever degree, the return to Australia of women who had participated in the horror show that was Isis beggars belief.

There are more revelations, no doubt, to come, but what is clear is that Tony Burke’s approach to who is and who is not allowed into this country does not appear to be in the best interests of most Australians, to put it mildly. Rather, the approach seems to be to do whatever it takes to further the interests of the Labor party and its western suburbs support groups. Burke is a disgrace. He deserves to be sent to political purgatory.

We should have had four political funerals this week. Instead we got a wedding.