While much has changed in the four years since Scott Morrison, Barnaby Joyce, and Josh Frydenberg were pictured fondling a piece of lacquered coal in parliament some things have stayed the same.
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Mr Morrison was elevated from Treasurer to Prime Minister by a bizarre leadership coup against Malcolm Turnbull before winning government in his own right.
He has since had an epiphany over climate change and now favours zero emissions by 2050.
That was helped along by the realisation President Biden was committed to that target and, as a result, Australia was out of step with its most powerful ally on an issue of global importance.
Mr Frydenberg, who stepped up as Treasurer following Mr Morrison's transition to a higher plane, seems happy to go along with his boss's views in the pragmatic belief it will cut the ground out from under the feet of the ALP at the next election.
Labor, while it is committed to zero emissions by 2050, remains deafeningly silent on what its target is for 2030 - or even 2035.
For Mr Joyce it has been all downhill since February 2017. The then deputy prime minister lost that job due to ructions in his private life not long after and has been rusticating on the back bench, pondering life's many injustices, for years now.
He has also reverted to his original form as a controversialist and a spoiler of the "there's no such thing as bad publicity" variety. Extreme scepticism over renewable energy and zero emissions targets have become his trademarks.
In recent times it has been a race to the bottom between himself and Michael McCormack, his replacement as deputy PM and the leader of the agrarian socialists.
Mr McCormack made headlines for all the wrong reasons earlier this month when, in an interview about climate change, he said: "We are not worried, or I'm certainly not worried, about what might happen in 30 years time".
Mr McCormack was arguing that agriculture, one of the sectors of the economy with the worst exposure to the effects of climate change, should be granted special exemptions to carbon emissions reductions measures.
His comments were widely criticised in the wider community, by peak farming organisations, and by agribusinesses that have already committed to the zero emissions by 2050 target well in advance of the politicians who claim to be representing the views.
This week Mr Joyce attempted to hijack Clean Energy Finance Corporation legislation by putting forward an amendment that would allow it to invest in that most mythical of political unicorns, "low emissions coal-fired power".
Craig Kelly, who Mr McCormack refused to confront over COVID-19 and vaccination misinformation on his Facebook page while the Prime Minister was on leave, has since piled on by saying he would look at an amendment from Mr Joyce that would allow the CEFC to invest in coal. He was "absolutely interested".
After being queried about a claim at least "half the Nationals" would support the Joyce amendment Mr Kelly revised his estimate downward to 40 per cent. Whatever. The birds of a feather are definitely sticking together.
The real question is who do these people think they are representing? They are clearly out of touch with prevailing community views in both the bush and the big smoke, and seem to be trying to woo the same right-wing fringe Pauline Hanson was dog whistling to during her meandering Senate tirade against Indigenous funding on Thursday.
This is the politics of a misplaced, and self-serving, populism. It is a dangerous game and it should stop.