An obituary for the year that was 2021

As 2021 made its debut, we took solace in the fact that our sky wasn't scarlet and our nation wasn't literally on fire. 2021's youth promised so much. We had 28,408 COVID-19 cases across Australia and new cases were on the decline, indicating that the virus was perhaps finally slowing down, and we might once again feel what we had almost all forgotten - pre-COVID normalcy.

The pitter-patter of little feet came as 2021 hit school age, with a plague of mice devouring western NSW and Queensland. Supermarkets, farms, towns and cities were overrun with them nibbling their way through ... well, everything.

In 2021's youth, a former Liberal staffer, Brittany Higgins, and our Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, put themselves on the line to do important work that exposed the extent of toxicity in Parliament House, and a broader systemic problem in our country of sexual assault and discrimination against women, coming from the top down.

As 2021 grew into adulthood, snap lockdowns around the country became the trend, before Delta hit Sydney and all but shut down NSW and Victoria for four months - this time with less financial support, while big business was all but gloating over how much JobKeeper it had received despite their profits. Did businesses have to pay it back? Of course not! Australia is the land of the free! We only chase money from people who don't have any in this country.

Don't even get me started on the vaccines debacle. The infighting between our states over provisions, the apparent inability of our leaders to sort it, and former PM Kevin Rudd stepping in to help get it done demonstrated the impact of our partisan government system on the people our leaders are meant to be serving. We hit a 91 per cent double-vaccination rate towards the end of 2021's life, which is certainly something to be celebrated. Quietly. With only your household. While wearing masks. Having undertaken a rapid antigen test.

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However, good things did happen throughout 2021's life. Ash Barty and Dylan Alcott made history in tennis. Cleo Smith was found alive. And NSW won the State of Origin (Up the Blues!). We also saw COP26 demonstrating the importance of coming together to fight climate change (not in Australia, of course), ICAC investigating state government corruption and leading to resignations (not federally though - I'm not sure we'd have many left if we had a federal ICAC), and Australia committing $65 million to global and regional gender equality initiatives in 2021-22 - all while the government was blocking Labor's push to investigate Christian Porter's "blind trust" to fund legal costs associated with his defamation case over accusations of a historical sexual assault. Speaking of defamation, we also saw our political leaders standing up for their "good" name, by bringing expensive suits against citizens who couldn't afford to defend themselves, and using specialist police units for personal battles.

We bridged the gap with First Nations people in a small way with the sweep of a pen - by changing one line of our national anthem to "for we are one and free" - we received no bad news at all on Facebook for a while as Facebook blocked Australian news websites from sharing content, and almost all of the Biloela family held in detention were granted year-long visas, leaving just the youngest child in community detention.

For a year that had so much hope pinned to its birth, it certainly grew up to be a great disappointment to its family.

So here we are, at 2021's end, and I think we are all thinking "Thank God it's dead", while trepidatiously approaching 2021's child, 2022, and wondering what the hellspawn has in store for us. New Year's Eve has a decidedly ghoulish feel, with our traditional celebration turning to nervous anticipation, enflamed by 2021's descent into the valley of death, screaming to our leadership, "A plague on both your houses!"

Rest in peace, 2021. And for God's sake, 2022, let us live in peace.