Movie Plot: Albanese attempts to become Australian dictator after China-US war but it does not go to plan! Eventually, Peter Dutton becomes prime minister with the same goals as Albanese.

Characters at time of the War:

Prime Minister Albanese; Defence Minister Marles; Foreign Affairs Minister Wong; Treasurer Chalmers; Attorney-General Dreyfus; PM’s Chief-of-Staff Gartrell; Secretary of Department of PM&C Davis; Secretary of Treasury Kennedy; Minister of Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Conroy; Luke Gosling; Tanya Plibersek; Mike Burgess of ASIO. Journalists Greg Sheridan, David Speers, Cameron Stewart and Nick McKenzie. Premiers: NSW Minns, Vic Allan, Qld Miles, WA Cook, Tas Rockliff, SA Malinauskas.

New Characters in Part 5 and 6:

Prime Minister Peter Dutton; Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham; Treasurer Angus Taylor, Defence Minister Andrew Hastie; Finance Minister Jane Hume; Attorney-General Michaella Cash; Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Dan Tehan; Dave Sharma; Paul Kelly; Michelle Gratton; Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw. Davis has been sacked as Secretary of the Department of PM&C and Minns has been appointed Secretary in his place.

Scene 60: Public Service Office

Minns: “I just wanted to get your views on the best way out of this situation. We now have unemployment at 10% and I understand that Treasury is forecasting 15% in the next few months. The PM has asked me to keep a close eye on this issue.”

Kennedy: “Yes, that is the latest advice that I provided to the Treasurer this morning.”

Minns: “I haven’t seen it. In the future could you please ensure that I get a copy of future advice at the same time as Angus Taylor.”

Kennedy hesitantly: “OK. If that is what the PM wants.”

Minns: “Yes. There is another issue that I wanted to discuss with you. It seems to me that we need to consider in detail taking over Chinese-owned businesses in Australia. The Treasurer is a bit hesitant on this issue but I want to ensure the PM is fully briefed.”

Kennedy: “You mean nationalization? Businesses owned by foreigner as foreign investment?”

Minns: “I am also thinking of substantial business owned by Chinese living in this country.”

Kennedy: “Well! That sounds extreme! While I wait for the Treasurer to raise this issue with me I will give it some preliminary thought.”

Minns: “Yes. Do that!”

Scene 61: Prime Minister’s Office

Dutton: “I am sorry Dan. But Sharma is the man for the job. And more importantly I need you in Defence Industry and Capability Delivery. Hastie is young and enthusiastic but needs the support of a wiser and more experienced head.”

Tehan: “If that is the case, I would be prepared to take on the Defence Ministry.”

Dutton: “Not yet. Let’s see how Hastie performs.”

Tehan: “He needs to be realistic about AUKUS. We all do.”

Dutton: “I know. But we cannot tell the electorate that China remains a huge threat if we now say AUKUS is a mirage.”

Tehan: “Electorate? With no elections we should just call them the public.”

Dutton laughs: “Minns is working on a proposal to bring elections back – but with some restrictions to ensure we get the right result. And Sharma will have a big role in this.”

Scene 62: Park

Former Secretary of PM&C Davis meets Treasury Secretary Kennedy in park

Davis: “I have become a pariah. People who I have worked closely for years are not returning my calls. I am worried that our phones are being monitored. There is a real push – on so-called national security grounds – to get access to all messaging apps. I may be paranoid, but the way I was marched out of my office makes me feel that some attention will be paid to me.”

Kennedy: “It has not happened to me – yet! But, Minns is getting very pushy and even suggesting – actually demanding – that anything I send to the Treasurer be sent to him at the same time.”

Davis: “Fuck! Minns is becoming a Martin Bormann.”

Kennedy: “Who?”

Davis: “He was Adolf Hitler’s very pushy private secretary.”

Kennedy: “Wow! I hope we are not going that way.”

Davis: “The problem is that Dutton is a thug, would have been happy in the Soviet KGB if he would have passed their intelligence tests. But Minns is smarter and the KGB would have taken him to manipulate the likes of Dutton.”

Kennedy: “Much history!”

Davis: “I have finally had time to read Jeff Schubert’s books on dictators.”

Scene 63: Prime Minister’s Office

Cash: “Reece Kershaw has given us a preliminary AFP report on Marles. It doesn’t tell us much. From what they can get from his phone, his last communication was with an ex-Australian SAS soldier. He has a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder pension and now again in a hospital for care. Says Marles had at times talked with him about his problems. Claims that they met at some veterans function, but cannot remember details. We still do not know what Marles was doing in that park.”

Dutton: “Was this SAS guy flying the drone?”

Cash: “AFP don’t know.”

Dutton: “It’s a pity we cannot find a Chinese connection!”

Cash: “The legislation to ban display of any symbols or images suggesting that China was not the aggressor in the war is nearly complete. It is a tricky area but we are basing it on 80.2HA of the Criminal Code which has been used to jail anti-Israel protesters who displayed things in support of Hezbollah. So any display of the Chinese flag will lead to arrests.”

Scene 64: Press Gallery

Gratton: “I’ve heard that Dutton wants to ban Chinese New Years celebrations but has been persuaded against this.”

Kelly: “Christians have long had problems in China so it may be the moral thing to do.”

Sheridan: “I totally agree. Starmer has proposed a similar thing in the UK, although it is easier there because they have less Chinese.”

Gratton: “Don’t you worry that we are getting like China – and Russia – with all this?”

Stewart: “It is only temporary. Once China and Russia are defeated we can go back to normal.”

Speers: “What do you mean by defeated? Eventually we will need to get used to China being more important in our region than the US. Indonesia certainly thinks so.”

Sheridan: “Stupid Muslims. In any case, Sharma will hype-up the message that there is little difference between Muslims and Chinese when it come to morality. As Reece Kershaw says, displaying Muslim or Chinese symbol is un-Australian.”

Speers: “Walking down a street in Moscow carrying the flag of Ukraine would get you arrested.”

Sheridan: “That is different.”

Speers: “How?”

Sheridan: “We are Christian.”

Speers: “So are Russians – at least the majority!”

Sheridan: “That’s the problem. Too many Muslim immigrants from Central Asia have upset the racial and religious purity of Russia.”

Scene 65: Public Service Office

Minns meets with Dave Sharma, the new Minister for Citizenship

Minns: “Have you thought about who should be Secretary of the Department of Citizenship?”

Sharma: “There is a Jeni Whalan who is head of Strengthening Democracy Taskforce in DFAT.”

Minns: “Impressive sounding position. Are you sure that she will align with our views?”

Sharma: “Not entirely, but she is very ambitious – and not unattractive!”

Minns: “Polling shows that the public is prepared to accept no elections for a period and the court cases can be dragged out, but at some stage we will need to play the election game We need to start planning for this so that we get the right results.”

Sharma: “I have a couple ideas. The shorter-term on is some mechanism to ensure that candidates for election pass some citizen test so that we can weed out any Chinese and Muslim sympathisers. It might also favour Jews in some way. But, the longer-term need is for a youth education policy that promotes an uniquely Australian view of citizenship. One that is aligned with Judeo-Christian values. This is where Whalan should be useful because of her education background.”

Minns: “I hope you are not putting your personal desires ahead of good policy?”

Sharma: “One other idea. Is there some way we can get Jillian Segal appointed to the High Court? It would potentially help us a lot. We could count on her and Jagot. They are peas-in-a-pod when it comes to Muslims.”

Minns: “Mmm. Let me think about this. Burgess at ASIO might be able to help.”