So a NSW cabinet minister has bitten the dust for having a bet and a perve using his office computer. What the hell is happening to Australia? Why are the wowserish narks even allowed to check on what an elected politician chooses to read? What will be ruled out tomorrow? Surely the only relevant thing about Paul McLeay is whether or not he was doing a good or bad job as minister for ports and waterways.

– Richard Farmer in Crikey yesterday.

Well, yes, maybe, hypothetically, in theory.

In practice, though, this NSW Government is such a rotting hulk of misconceived intentions and failed policies that any action by one of its ministers — no matter how unrelated it is to that person’s actual performance — is viewed by the electorate through the prism of gross government incompetence.

And seen through that prism, viewing p-rn on the office computer is a hanging offence. Although, of course, all NSW ministers will be hung en masse next March in what could be the most monumental rout in mainstream Australian electoral history.