Pickett’s Charge was the high-water mark of the Confederacy in the Civil War, when Robert E. Lee disastrously gambled he could break the Union line at Gettysburg, capping his incursion into the North with the defeat of Meade’s Army of the Potomac, thereby demonstrating to the world that the South could not merely resist the North, it could strike deep into its heart.

After its inevitable failure, the South could never again dream of an improbable victory against a more powerful opponent.

In months to come, Coalition MPs might feel that this was the week when their faint hopes of victory this year, aroused by Tony Abbott’s ascension, were snuffed out.  If there was a Pickett’s Charge moment, when the hitherto-frenetic attack faltered in the face of a desperate, but ultimately well-organised, defence, it was in Question Time this week, when the Opposition failed to pressure Garrett or the Government.

There were poor tactics — we are now, unbelievably, up to 31 censure motions from the Opposition in the past two years — poor questions (Greg Hunt asking on Tuesday why Garrett hadn’t mentioned a phone number in an interview was probably the moment Garrett realised he was safe) and poor judgement from backbenchers in giving the Government material to throw back at them.

And there’s the growing sense that this Opposition only has one gear, and no options when that one doesn’t work.

It was a close-run thing, but Garrett organised his own defence well enough to hold out against his assailants, while the Prime Minister desperately worked to get the Government onto the front foot on the issue.  This was duly done yesterday with Rudd himself going out to talk to visiting installers and announcing an assistance program to tide the sector over until the new scheme was up and running. Today, Rudd told a special Caucus meeting that MPs had to get out there and front installers like he had done.

There was nothing glamorous or brilliant about it.  It was simply solid defensive work by a Government that knew it was under the hammer.

Had the Coalition seriously rattled Garrett — and what would Malcolm Turnbull with his forensic approach and withering sarcasm been able to do? — and the big bloke had fallen, the Opposition would have developed real momentum and inflicted a significant psychological defeat on the Government.  Instead, it has to accept that, even with a press gallery baying for Garrett’s head and the media systematically misreporting how Garrett and his department addressed the program risks, it has been unable to nail him.

Coalition MPs might reflect on what might have been for quite some time to come.