Independent senator David Pocock has confirmed that there are 'plenty of conversations going on' about forming a new political party to counter the rise of One Nation, because apparently the existing options weren't confusing enough.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident that definitely didn't involve political strategy, a man has died after a shark attack south of Cairns. The ocean remains indifferent to Australia's electoral calculus.

In other news, climate activists have successfully blocked two coal ships from entering the Port of Newcastle by deploying kayaks and a small boat into the shipping channel. 'I grew up in the best years economically in Australia’s history,' one activist explained, 'and I can’t sleep at night thinking about my 5 great-grandkids trying to live on a dead planet if we keep mining coal.' The coal ships, presumably, are also losing sleep over their disrupted schedules.

Pocock, for his part, is keeping his options open. 'There’s so many people in politics for the right reasons,' he said, 'and when you’re in there, you want to say, well, how do we actually ensure that people can elect people that are going to come here and really deal with the root causes of the problems that we’re facing.' Because nothing says 'root causes' like forming yet another political party. 'How do you be part of changing our country for the better? For me at the moment, that is serving people in the ACT, engaging on each issue, bringing solutions, using whatever power I have in the Senate to actually work on behalf of the people that have sent me there. As to what that looks like in the future, who knows?' he added, leaving the nation on the edge of its seat.