Best Newcomer: Jacqui Lambie

The Best Newcomer Logie usually goes to a winsome starlet who makes a quick and loud splash in the waters of Summer Bay or Ramsay Street. Before you know it, she has released a pop single, leaked a sex tape, and made her first Dally-Ms red carpet appearance, along with her name. Senator Lambie has achieved the political equivalent - since her swearing in, she has, in short order, referred to Prime Minister Tony Abbott as a "political psychopath", spoken out against gay marriage and burqas, and given Australia to understand that she likes her male companions to be well-endowed, even though this was information Australia was most certainly not seeking. She is also against sharia law, an important issue for all Tasmanians, who live under constant threat of its imposition.

Most recently the former PUP Senator has drawn attention to herself with a public battle with her erstwhile party leader, Clive Palmer, over the issue of the government's pay deal for the armed forces. Lambie has vowed to vote against all government legislation until her policy wishes are fulfilled - a power move which is the political equivalent of locking oneself in one's dressing room and refusing to come out. We hope Ms Lambie's creative issues with management are soon resolved - the show cannot possibly go on without her.

Most Popular: Julie Bishop

Call her the Lisa McCune of Canberra. Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has been sitting under our noses for years now, but it wasn't until she landed a once-in-a-lifetime break-out role - the Foreign Ministry - that Australia realised the depth her talents. Bishop has stared down Russian aggression, comforted the nation over Australian deaths on Flight MH17, confronted Vladimir Putin over access to the crash site and helped negotiate the New Colombo Plan. She topped off the year with an elegant photo shoot in high fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar, which named her Woman of the Year. In the accompanying interview, she talked matters foreign policy and expressed her disdain for scrunchies: this is a woman who knows her audience.

Most Unusual Defence of a Budget Measure: Joe Hockey

During the long years of Opposition, it looked as though Mr Hockey had been typecast as "Cuddly Joe", the nice guy who is essential to any cast, but is seldom offered the more interesting character roles. But since his drastically unpopular budget, we have seen the Treasurer's repertoire stretch to "bad guy" and "cigar-smoking villain". He has also shown an interest in writing his own dialogue, to great creative effect. In May, the Treasurer said he was astounded by people's "screaming" over his proposed $7 GP co-payment, and made an unusual comparison to put the whole thing into perspective. "One packet of cigarettes costs $22. That gives you three visits to the doctor," he said. "You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that's two middies of beer to go to the doctor!" Nobody was quite sure exactly how they had been insulted, but they were pretty sure they had been. Sydney-siders also demanded to know where Hockey was sourcing his $3.50 beers. But great art is like that - it poses more questions than it answers.

Best Entertainer: Clive Palmer

The Palmer United Party potentate has burst through the political firmament like a giant fireball - a devastating Sumo-roll of quirky quotes, policy back-flips and surprise Al Gore appearances. While questions lurk about his business dealings, his waggish personal brand has been tough to taint, despite the fact that he has reversed his position on important policies and has made unpleasant personal comments about people including the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Peta Credlin. Who could forget when he pulled climate change activist and former US vice-president Gore out of his comedy billionaire's hat at the launch of his climate change policy? Nobody, that's who! Although you might be hard pressed to recall what that policy actually was, given that he reversed it a few months later to vote for the government's Direct Action policy, despite having previously declared it a "waste of money". Palmer knows the secret to notoriety is to keep the punters guessing. He also knows his fractious relationship with the media - which reaches its zenith when he swore and stormed out of a 7.30 interview with host Sarah Ferguson - is the best way to stay in the media. The day Mr Palmer stepped off the Monopoly board and into political life was a happy day for the showbiz of politics in this nation.

Most Improved: the Opposition

Things move fast in showbiz - just a year or so ago, the only nomination possible for Labor would have been "Most Gruesome Reality Show". Under Opposition leader Bill Shorten, the whole show has become tighter and more professional, with fewer close-ups of people crying in toilets. Mr Shorten's oratory has received mixed reviews - he coined the rather pedestrian "Team Idiot" to counter Mr Abbott's "Team Australia", and has a strange habit of delivering his lines in Yoda-like syntax, for example: "They are playing with fire our national security" when he was railing against the government's submarine policy. Still, at least Shorten has stayed on script, which is more than you could say for Immigration spokesman Richard Marles. In October Marles unilaterally reversed Labor's stated policy position on asylum seeker boat turn-arounds by saying on telly the party "might" continue with this Scott Morrison-trademarked approach. The left-wing of the party were not best pleased, and for a moment the nation had a post-traumatic flashback to the bad old days of Labor dysfunction. It was enough to make you run crying to the toilets. Thankfully, this was a passing aberration and the show marched on, aided at all times by the excellent material it received in the government's May budget. So what if it has not exactly received rave reviews? It is still out-rating its main rival, and has kept the bloopers reel to a minimum.

Best International Role: Tony Abbott

The last award, more Palmes D'Or than Logie, goes to the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Despite possessing some of the worst schoolboy French ever to have been allowed through Immigration at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Mr Abbott excelled when it came to the diplomatic arts, positively wooing foreign leaders in Australia for the G20 summit in November. He completed a short buddy-movie with British Prime Minister David Cameron, and defied the great showbiz rule about working with animals when it came to Chinese President Ji Xinping, onto whose person he flung a koala in order to sweeten him up to sign a historic Free Trade Agreement. He back-slapped with the Indian Prime Minister and even managed not to say anything nasty about socialism to French President Francois Hollande. Importantly for a break-out international star, he even created his own catch-phrase, when he introduced "shirtfronting" to the diplomatic lexicon. Sadly, like many a Summer Bay graduate who has gone on to "work in LA", eventually you gotta come back home, and down to earth. For Abbott, that means turning his mind to the budget sell and the crazy cast-members in the senate. That's some tough talent to manage.