Several commentators have remarked that, while the mainstream media is locked in furious agreement with the government over AUKUS and the trillion dollar submarines (a guess at the final price tag), social and independent media are telling quite a different tale.

So Malcolm Turnbull’s $50 billion submarines sank almost without trace – not as they were meant to, after the first of them makes its stealthy launch in 2030, or somewhere within that decade, but in a morass of turmoil and distraction last week.