Loading This was foolishness. It was an unnecessary attack on a city mayor by a cabinet minister who is supposed to have more important things to do. If the government believed in the traditional rules of accountability, Taylor would have stepped aside on Tuesday when NSW Police confirmed their investigation into the affair. Morrison now has cause to regret not asking his minister to take time out. Keeping Taylor in the job meant having to defend him in Parliament. Forced to defend him, Morrison made things worse. This is a tactical victory for Labor leader Anthony Albanese and vindicates the decision to turn the pressure from the minister to the Prime Minister.

Loading Morrison should not have called NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller to check on the instigation, nature and substance of the investigation into Taylor. He should not have called at all. One lawyer who is too polite to put his assessment on the public record has a simple word for this decision: dumb. The best person to check on the investigation was the senior adviser who often rules on matters of ministerial conduct – the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Previous Prime Ministers have left it to this top bureaucrat – previously Martin Parkinson, now Phil Gaetjens – to prepare the brief on whether a minister should stay or go.

Loading Morrison is often praised for his political nous, given he defied so many by winning the election, but his judgment failed him here. He is now totally exposed to the Labor accusation that he wanted to influence the investigation and thinks he is above the usual rules of accountability. On tactics, Morrison tried to turn the tables on Labor by pointing to times in the past when Bill Shorten did not step aside while under police investigation and Julia Gillard stayed in her job when the police looked into the Australian Workers' Union affair. The use of Shorten was instructive. It was grubby, but also beside the point. Shorten was an Opposition Leader, not a minister. Being a minister involves higher responsibility and accountability, something lost on so many tribal warriors who forget what being in government means.