And it was in these two decisions that the seeds of its now calamitous failure were sown. Attorney-General Senator George Brandis addresses the media at Parliament House on Thursday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The selection of the avowed conservative Justice Dyson Heydon had tainted the credibility of the $61 million royal commission from the get-go. Now his participation as a drawcard in a Liberal Party fundraising event has removed any remaining air of independence he and his process had enjoyed. Justice, as he would know, must be done and be seen to be done. That now is impossible.

Heydon's spectacular demise - for surely he cannot credibly continue - is the latest political and administrative disaster for a Prime Minister who is now the most crisis-prone since the McMahon and Whitlam periods. Leader of the House Christopher Pyne shuts down an attempt by Labor to have Justice Heydon removed as royal commissioner. Credit:Andrew Meares Heydon had already raised eyebrows for his editorialising reproach of the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten delivered from the bench last month. That had sailed close to the wind. But his injudicious involvement in the fundraising efforts of the Liberal Party has rendered his claimed impartiality moot. For Abbott, it is another decision gone wrong. Just as Bronwyn Bishop's demise was the maturation of a dud call made long before, Heydon's judicial appointment had been aggressively partisan from the beginning. Justice Heydon at the royal commission.

Unless Heydon can come up with a compelling explanation for his involvement in the address, then any suggestion that he was unaware that he was participating in a Liberal Party fundraising event when he agreed to speak will be extremely hard to believe - a lot less so in fact than the conclusions and inferences he would be likely to draw from the evidence his inquiry adduces. Besides, what does such ignorance say for his inquisitorial prowess, and or for his attention to important administrative detail? Justice, as he would know, must be done and be seen to be done. That now is impossible. Liberals worried about their leader's performance this week on same-sex marriage now have another problem to add to the list. What was it Abbott told his shell-shocked colleagues in the wake of the Bronwyn Bishop crisis? When we talk about jobs and the economy, we thrive.

Not much talk of that at present. Follow us on Twitter