Nothing excites Parliament House in Canberra quite like squabbles over political leadership. The atmosphere in the bubble that is Capitol Hill swirls around like a mini tornado as people share the latest gossip on an almost hourly basis.

Press Gallery journalists make extra trips for coffee down to Aussie’s Café in the centre of the building, in the hope of bumping into someone influential who ‘knows what’s going on’. Every movement, every nuance and every word in the House is minutely examined to extract a new development or angle to a story whose endgame is plain to everyone.

When it reaches this stage in Canberra, policy fades from consciousness as the immediacy and power play of leadership takes over. Even politicians on the other side of the House are gripped with morbid fascination as they watch the future of parliamentary colleagues played out in the media and before their eyes.

The fates of Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Costello have particular resonance, as the Liberal party has seen this sort of thing before. Only difference here is that the soufflé has never risen. Indeed, the most intriguing question is this - can it rise at all?

Either way, the sooner this matter is dealt with, the better. Australians need a Canberra Press Gallery that is sharply focused on the Government and its response to the Global Financial Crisis. Likewise, we need a functioning Opposition calling the Government to account for how it is helping the many Australians who now find themselves out of work. At present we have neither.