With the outcome of the Western Australian election in doubt and upheavals in New South Wales, the aftershocks of the weekend’s ruptures in the Labor Party will be felt in Canberra. But other parties also have their problems. From coast-to-coast Labor governments to coast-to-coast confusion has taken a mere 10 months.

When historians look back on what has been a week of unprecedented political havoc across the country, perhaps one of the most significant developments will have gone contemporaneously unremarked: the final morphing of Brendan Nelson into Simon Crean. Crean paid the ultimate price. It’s odds-on Nelson will as well.

Since Jamie Briggs won preselection, so-called anonymous Liberal “dirt sheets” on the 31-year-old former Howard government staffer have been raining in Canberra like confetti.