Nevertheless, we should brace ourselves for the return of said politics as usual. After going into hibernation during the pandemic, it is now breaking out all over: federal party politics, federal-state politics, interstate politics. We should welcome it, but quickly define its limits and its acceptable style.

The origins of its hibernation lie in the unnecessary primacy given to governments over parliaments during the pandemic. The federal and state parliaments were immediately gutted and replaced in practice, and in the public imagination, by the new national cabinet, led by the Prime Minister. Other less well-known bodies were also created, such as the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission.

The whole nation became fixated on the progress of the pandemic. The national cabinet largely held together, political leaders treated each other with respect, and cross-party alliances developed between state premiers.

There was little room for critics and and/or opposition. Some debate ensued about the appropriateness of certain health-related measures, and about specific controversies such as the cruise ship Ruby Princess and the aged care facility Newmarch House. Only belatedly was a full independent commission of enquiry called by the NSW state government into the Ruby Princess fiasco.

When attention shifted to economic recovery measures, the focus initially remained on the rollout of the federal government's measures to combat business failure and unemployment through doubling the JobSeeker benefit (formerly known as Newstart), and then introducing the JobKeeper payment to keep the bulk of employees on the books of their employer.

After early bipartisanship, created largely by the circumstances, the Labor opposition was increasingly emboldened to join in public questioning of aspects of the JobKeeper program, especially the exclusion from the scheme of many categories of workers, such as casuals and foreigners. The questioning extended to the likely duration of the initial six-month government commitment.

Political hibernation extended to the media. The latter depends for much of its political coverage on the operation of Parliament. When it shut up shop, much of the lifeblood of political coverage by the media was shut off too.

The Prime Minister's lengthy reports to the nation after meetings of the national cabinet dominated the political agenda. The ability of journalists to raise other issues was squeezed out, their queries too easily dismissed by the PM as inappropriate and old-style media troublemaking.

The Parliament did its best to oversee the activities of government during the pandemic through its Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 chaired by Labor's senator Katy Gallagher of the ACT. But it was hamstrung.

The committee's public hearings showed that the primacy of government over Parliament had led to flagrant inattention to due process and transparency issues. Reasonable queries about the operations of the national cabinet and the COVID-19 Coordination Commission were fobbed off by senior government officials as if they were not in the public interest, which they clearly were.

Fortunately, Australian federal politics is now rising from its enforced slumber. This awakening has several ingredients. Firstly, some contentious pre-pandemic political issues, such as the sports rorts affair, are now back. The PM has questions of accountability still to answer. Secondly, the debate about the targeting and duration of the government's economic recovery measures is becoming more probing. This debate now extends to larger issues, such as the size and shape of our immigration intake. Thirdly, there is growing awareness of what new legislation, such as the ASIO bill, might be quietly eased through Parliament under cover of the pandemic if the community is not alert.

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The same awakening is taking place in federal-state politics, especially in relation to the reopening of schools, exemplified by Dan Tehan's accusation that Victorian Premier Dan Andrews showed a failure of leadership. Frustration has been behind some of this federal-state politics, but so has been the drive for party political advantage. The next state election is in Queensland in October, about the same time as the next ACT election. This has led to attacks by several other Queensland federal Coalition MPs, including Peter Dutton, on the state Labor government of Annastacia Palaszczuk. As elections come around, the handling of the pandemic by governments is a legitimate topic for campaigning - if done properly.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is frustrated by Palaszcuk's insistence that Queensland's borders will remain closed, possibly until September. Western Australia's Mark McGowan is also keeping his borders closed, and South Australia's Steven Marshall has forced the state's two AFL teams to relocate to the Gold Coast. Tampering with a state's favourite sports teams is a brave move!

Politics in the best sense, not the Littleproud sense, is returning to normal. To do so, it first needs a fully functioning Federal Parliament, which should not have been filleted in the first place.

The return of robust politics will be accelerated by the Eden-Monaro byelection. This campaign will test our mettle in various ways, including finding a style of political campaigning we can be proud of. It will bring together local concerns about bushfire recovery and severe economic downturn with larger national themes such as climate change and the proper role of government in post-pandemic Australia.