Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd, Darren Goodsir, and staid puffery greets the return of the goanna

(Above: high and low lights of the National Times launch).

Who on earth is this Malcolm Turnbull writing for the new masthead the National Times which is buried at the moment within the body of The Sydney Morning Herald?

What on earth has driven him to write an ideologically frenzied piece about the dire situation of newspapers on the intertubes, roughly equivalent to Chairman Rudd's musings on neo-liberalism and economic policies of the past thirty years?

It's all there in Into the brave new world of making a difference, but you'll search long and hard in the online copy for an indication that it might be the federal opposition leader.

About the only clue?

The National Times has been revived online and while I had a celebrated run-in with its hardcopy incarnation, I wish the online incarnation the best of luck.

Ah yes, back in the days of Kerry Packer and the goanna saga, which is surely one of the down moments for investigative journalism in this country, so it's all the more piquant that the National Times has revived the goanna as a symbol, and imported Malcolm Turnbull to do a puff piece for its launch.

For puff piece it is - for what at the moment is no more than a new internal header for opinion pieces. For Malcolm it's like the rising of the sun, a new dawning:

National Times is pitched at an audience wanting something more than day-to-day news, rather, informed comment and analysis of issues. The line-up of writers is impressive and for the first time brings together all the senior commentators from across the Fairfax Media titles.

Ignore the suck up bit about impressive. It's just too much, politicians writing about journos writing about politicians. And it can't be everyone surely, unless we assume there are no senior commentators working at the Australian Financial Review, or Fairfax intends to breach its firewall by freely circulating content now contained behind a fire wall (yes please keep Peter Ruehl behind the fire wall). So likely it's the same old same old.

The National Times can through intelligent and thoughtful discussion provoke, inspire and remind not only the country's leaders to act in the best interests of the nation, but all Australians who want to make a difference.

And publish important intelligent leaders from the leader of the opposition.

But perhaps the funniest lines are the ones where Turnbull echoes the current Murdoch line that the state of Chairman Rupert's wallet is a key indicator of the health of democracy:

This era of profitless abundance should give us cause for concern – it raises real issues for our democracy. Will newsrooms deprived of the resources to do their own sleuthing become more and more dependent on packages of information prepared and presented to them by the growing army of government media advisers and spinmeisters?

How independent can the media be if it lacks the financial resources to do its work?

Go tell that to Kerry Packer and the goanna, a reference which will probably be lost for those who can't remember the Fairfax attempt through the National Times to imitate the lean and nosy like a ferret days of the Nation Review.

The rest of Turnbull's piece is full of fair average insights into the predicaments of hard copy newspapers, and the way he now gets all his information faster in digital form over the full to overflowing intertubes, and how hard this makes things for the likes of Fairfax.

As for his pious hopes for what at the moment is little more than an internal re-badging in a ploy to look like something is happening at Fairfax online? Well it seems it might be better than parliament:

I hope this new masthead becomes too a forum for ideas, to look beyond the square and stimulate discussion on issues on which we politicians struggle sometimes to devise solutions for the optimum benefit of the nation.

So government's useless and we look to journalists for solutions? Have things gone so low under Chairman Rudd?

The extent of the role of government, our water crisis, transport, communications, the environment, taxation, health, innovation, and the arts are matters of enormous importance to all Australians, yet the combative nature of our politics and our multi-tiered government structure sometimes works against best policy outcomes.

Yep indeed it seems our multi-tiered government structure means government is useless. So government's a policy free zone. And it's a long, slow, painful road back from utegate.

Many of these issues are linked by the need for governments to manage their budgets prudently to enable them to act in a targeted way when necessary to repair or restore failings or inadequacies in these critical areas of the economy and society. Wasteful spending, deep deficits and high levels of debt severely limit a government's capacity to intervene where and when necessary in resolving, for instance, the critical water shortage in the Murray-Darling Basin, our failing hospitals, and transport bottlenecks that limit economic growth potential.

What about global warming, is that an issue?

Sssh, not a word. Don't want to startle the Tim Blair possums as they enjoy the warm start to the spring.

Oh and as for this piece being written by the leader of the opposition, and sucking up to Fairfax, not a word about that either please. For all we know, he might be one of those humble news reporters whose byline is less memorable or compelling ...

Meanwhile, in another corner of the rag Kevin Rudd also shares the banner with Arguments grounded in fact always win the day. Again there's no indication this is just another piece of political spin from the indefatigable scribbler and stirrer.

For all the average uncaring reader might know, this might just be a little Kev from Queensland, splurging almost a thousand words on all the same issues, namely education, infrastructure, road, rail, business reform, broadband, yadda yadda, at least until you get down to the bit about "This Government", closet speak for "My government and I".

And so of the top five highlighted pieces to lead the National Times into this brave new world on a working Monday, two are by politicians. Spruiking their wares, though at least Turnbull tries to be relevant and less obvious in his spruiking by hooking his FUD to the decline and fall of newspapers due to the intertubes.

And this is the brave new world of investigative journalism led by a brand new branding?

Feels like The Punch all over again, as politicians get to frolic as column writers and opinion spruikers, providing free copy any sensible person would want to avoid, unless they want to read the opinions of the day with a dash of propaganda for spice and flavor ...

Let's hope that this doesn't become a regular feature. If I wanted to get regular blather from politicians, I'd visit their websites, or worse still watch parliament in action, or worse still listen to it on the radio, or even more dire, hook up to their twittering tweets. I don't ...

It almost feels like reading the latest in John Della Bosca's love life is going to be about as hard edged and investigative as it gets in this brave new world.

Oh and if you want to read an explanation for how the National Times will work, as usual mumbrella has the goods, with a post by editor Darren Goodsir here.

After inflicting Turnbull and Rudd on us, he promises to respect, not ridicule his readers.

Presumably down the track there's the hope that the site can spin off and start to charge for its content.

Well good luck with that, but here's a tip. Get rid of the politicians. Usually you can't give away their puffery for free. Using them to brand a site as something the punters would want to pay for? You've got to be dreaming ...

(Below: Kerry Packer and Malcolm Turnbull back in the days when the goanna was more than a reptile).