It is hard to believe that Malcolm is the leader of any political party of significance. The latest instalment of the Jamie Briggs saga in The Oz defies belief. This is from the latest episode.

As the fallout from Mr Briggs’s resignation continues to rattle the Coalition, The Australian can also reveal that Right-aligned MPs in South Australia will today discuss potential replacement candidates for the blue-ribbon seat of Mayo held by Mr Briggs on a 12.5 per cent margin. The move comes amid heightened speculation that Mr Briggs, 38, may not want to recontest the next election and as Liberal strategists fear losing the seat, which is threatened by Nick Xenophon’s decision to run lower house candidates in South Australia.

Supporters of Mr Briggs say he is considering his future in par­liament and “waiting for the dust to settle”, but feels aggrieved by the process put in place by Mr Turnbull.

The Australian understands that on December 10, after the formal complaint had been lodged by the consular staffer about Mr Briggs’s “inappropriate” behaviour at the Stormies Bar on Nov­ember 27, Mr Turnbull phoned the then cities minister to discuss the complaint against him and his decision to launch an independent investigation.

In the phone conversation, it is understood Mr Turnbull suggested to Mr Briggs that while the investigation would run its course, it was likely that he would need to consider resigning his frontbench role. . . .

While some MPs say this is evidence that the investigation was a “stitch up”, others suggest Mr Turnbull made the assessment that there was little room for leniency because Mr Briggs had failed to apologise to the consular staffer before she complained formally. . . .

There was also an assessment that it would have been more damaging for the government if Mr Turnbull had not acted decisively against Mr Briggs for the breach of ministerial standards, which may have later come to light. . . .

Another senior federal Liberal MP said the Right faction needed to prepare a contingency plan. “One of the things that genuinely has to be discussed is the likelihood of the state executive reopening preselections in Mayo, because I don’t think Briggs will hold the seat.”

How could the fallout have been any worse than it now is? A seat with a 12.5% margin is now at risk. For me, whatever the PM may say, this is political stupidity of the highest order which has destabilised his own side.

OK Malcolm. Paying attention? Here’s the lesson: you are on your own side, you are on the same side as all the other people who sit with you and behind you in Parliament. No self-inflicted wounds. No creating hostages to fortune. No sacking of ministers, or anyone else, until the costs of not doing so are clearly overwhelming. That’s the lesson. Now a working example.

Exhibit A: Jamie Briggs. No doubt a story so terrible that if we heard it all, we would personally take every action to ensure that he was ostracised from decent company and run out of Parliament. At that point, out he goes, but not till that point is reached. Hasty action makes you look like a clown. This is where have now arrived at because of your intemperate actions. Although the heading looks OK – Journalist Samantha Maiden accepts Peter Dutton’s ‘mad witch’ text apology – the first paras in the Malcolm-friendly Oz are a bit of a worry:

Labor has lashed out at Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s “boorish” and “unbecoming” text after he called a female journalist a “mad f.king witch”, urging Malcolm Turnbull to explain the cabinet minister’s behaviour.

Mr Dutton has come under fire for the text message he accidentally sent to News Corp Australia’s Sunday political editor, Samantha Maiden, over her coverage of fallen junior minister Jamie Briggs’s late-night bar incident with a female public servant in Hong Kong.

Mr Dutton has apologised for calling Maiden a “mad f.king witch” after she reported yesterday that Mr Briggs had sent colleagues a photograph of the diplomat who complained about his behaviour, which ultimately led to his resignation from the frontbench.

Dutton would not have emailed anything had you not created the Jamie Briggs saga. You are not the calming influence you need to be. I know you thought Tony Abbott should have sacked Bronwyn Bishop the moment he had heard about the helicopter ride. Maybe, but who knew then how it would unfold? How’s Tony Burke going, by the way? You remember, it was only last August: Tony Burke: Taxpayers slugged $2.2 million for travel costs including charter flights on VIP jets. Let me just give you a para from the story to help you remember:

The Western Sydney MP — who led the attack on former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop for hiring a charter helicopter for an 80km flight to attend a Liberal fundraiser — is a prolific entitlements seeker.

So Malcolm, if you are going to jump at every shadow, you will be an even bigger disaster than even I had thought you would be. From this moment on, you are in 100% defend-your-ministers mode. If Peter Dutton goes, so will you.

The part that gets me about all this is that Malcolm has such a political tin ear that he is quite content to create havoc in his own parliamentary party for no political advantage that I can see. There are lots of different issues but I will mention only one. Comes the next election, he will be very happy to have as many of his colleagues back as he can get. He thinks he’s on his way to an increased majority. I think it may be one of the closest election in years. If this is how to win more seats in South Australia, then there is a new world of political calculation I am not yet acquainted with.

Here are the further details so far as they are known. The photo is from an article up on The OZ website along with the heading, Jamie Briggs defends conduct over photo of public servant. How many hundreds of photos do politicians take just like this? How many nights out are there just like that? The further details:

Disgraced junior minister Jamie Briggs has confirmed to the Sunday Telegraph that he forwarded a photograph identifying the female public servant who lodged a confidential complaint about his behaviour in a Hong Kong bar to some colleagues.’

After publicly stating he had chosen not to name the woman to “protect her privacy’’ Mr Briggs has confirmed the photograph of the public servant published on the front page of The Weekend Australian was taken on his own mobile phone.

The Australian pixelated the image to protect the woman’s privacy but it was forwarded by Mr Briggs to his colleagues without an attempt to protect her identity.

The former minister did not leak the photo to The Australian but confirmed he had “sent it to a few ­people prior to the complaint and following’’.

He sent the photo prior to the complaint. And after the complaint became public, why should he not have sent the photo to colleagues as well. The name of the woman involved is no doubt now known across the entire public service by everyone in Canberra. Anyway, here is what he said.

“We interacted between the three of us and with others in what I believed at the time was an informal manner,” Mr Briggs said in announcing his resignation.

“At the conclusion of the evening, the public servant left to return home and my chief of staff and I returned to our hotel together. At no point was it my intention to act inappropriately and I’m obliged to note for the record that nothing illegal has been alleged or in fact did occur.

“However, in the days following the evening, the public servant concerned raised concerns about the appropriateness of my behaviour towards her at the venue. I’ve apologised directly to her but after careful reflection about the concerns she raised and the fact that I was at a bar late at night while on an overseas visit, I have concluded this behaviour has not met the particularly high standards for ministers. Therefore, the proper course of action for me is to resign.”

Labelling his behaviour an “error of professional judgment”, Mr Briggs publicly apologised to the public servant, his colleagues and the Australian community for his actions.

“(This has) given me cause to consider aspects of my behaviour, which I will address,” he said.

Unless there is more to this story than I have so far heard, there is nothing to this story at all, certainly not enough to create the lasting enmities that this one is very likely to do.

And to all this may be added this: Peter Dutton sorry for ‘mad witch’ attack on reporter. Or more accurately:

Senior cabinet member Peter ­Dutton has apologised for calling a female journalist a “mad f. king witch” over her coverage of fallen junior minister Jamie Briggs’s ­exploits in Hong Kong.

The Immigration Minister ­yesterday admitted that he sent the message to the political editor for News Corp Australia’s Sunday papers, Samantha Maiden, after she ­reported Mr Briggs had sent colleagues a photograph of the diplomat who complained about his behaviour at the Stormies Bar in late November.

It is understood Mr Dutton ­accidentally sent the text message to Maiden instead of Mr Briggs in what was intended as a show of support for the besieged South Australian MP.

This all distracts from how empty Malcolm’s economic understanding is. This is just as sad as it gets, a man with no plan hoping for the best: Households to drive the economy in 2016. A consumer-led recovery! There are no words.