That means it will not be too long before the Federal Government and Parliament awake from the summer slumber and set about running the nation … well sort of.

There is still one sizeable hangover to be cured … the citizenship problem.

Voters could face more of the uncertainty, name calling and acrimony that were features of the section 44 citizenship debacle through 2017. The issue could dominate politics for the first half of 2018.

The High Court was expected to make a decision last week on whether or not to probe more deeply into the eligibility of Labor MP David Feeney and Labor senator Katy Gallagher to sit in Parliament.

The court adjourned the matter to a date to be set, probably in March.

Ms Gallagher, who was demonstrably entitled to dual citizenship when she accepted appointment to the Senate in 2015, asked the upper house to refer her citizenship status to the court in December.

Her defence is she had taken all "reasonable steps within her power to renounce her UK citizenship" before nominating.

Mr Feeney's case is, if anything, more fraught with challenges given his initial reluctance to concede there was a problem, his ongoing failure to produce the documents it was claimed would clear him on the issue and his refusal to follow the lead of Liberal MP John Alexander who resigned under similar circumstances.

Mr Alexander has since returned to Parliament after winning a by-election. If Mr Feeney is forced to a by-election he may face a much tougher challenge from the Greens.

Section 44 is shaping up to be as big a pain in the neck for Bill Shorten in 2018 as it was for Malcolm Turnbull and The Nationals in 2017.

Mr Shorten’s outburst of indignation over the way pressure has been put on several of his MPs and senators to back up their section 44 claims with documents is hard to treat seriously.

For most of last year, while this issue was causing massive damage and inconvenience to his political opponents, Mr Shorten was happy to play the game for all it was worth.

Now the shoe is well and truly on the other foot all things are no longer fair in love, war and politics apparently. Labor may just have to come to terms with the fact that what goes around comes around.