The word “show” is used a lot in Canberra, though you don’t often hear it when the cameras and microphones are switched on. Those who spend much of their lives in Parliament House can often be heard muttering about “the whole bloody show”, by which they mean federal politics, or “your show”, by which they mean either the Coalition or Labor. If somebody’s thinking of leaving politics altogether they’re said to be “getting out of the show”.

It’s an important reminder to politicians to never forget that performance is an important part of their job. Yes, you’ve got to hunker down and do your policy work – and if I was Turnbull right now that’s exactly what I’d be instructing my ministers to be doing between now and February, when he’ll need to burn up the ground beneath him – but you can never afford to make the mistake of thinking that’s all there is.

Which is why I can both completely agree with Liberal minister Kelly O’Dwyer when she accuses Labor of playing “adolescent games” in the parliament, and think it was an incredibly stupid thing to say. Has she forgotten what her job is? She’s a politician, not a shadowy bureaucrat. There are times when adolescent games – provided they’re sufficiently entertaining – are exactly what is needed to shine the spotlight in the right direction. Anyone who thinks otherwise should find another profession.

The “adolescent games” O’Dwyer was whingeing about happened last night, when Labor moved an amendment calling on the government to “explain why it has failed to close tax loopholes and increase transparency in Australia”.

O’Dwyer waved the amendment through, thinking nothing of it, and the Parliament passed it.

Only afterwards was the government told of its mistake.

In the scheme of things this means zilch, zero, nada. The government fixed it right up afterwards, with Labor’s help – because why be unsporting when you’ve just had a victory? – and there were no substantive consequences.

But once again it allowed Labor to shine the spotlight where it wanted, in this case both on tax loopholes and on the government’s inability to get the basics right.

Labor got back into show-business mode in Question Time. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen asked a detailed policy question O’Dwyer couldn’t answer. Then frontbencher Jim Chalmers got pretty sharp:

Given the minister for revenue can’t answer basic questions about her legislation, contradicts the prime minister on house prices and negative gearing and was the original architect of the Census disaster, can the minister please tell a very interested house, what other spectacular policy achievements lie ahead, or is this the high point of your brilliant career?

The question was always going to be ruled out of order, but Chalmers couldn’t have cared less – he’d grabbed the attention he wanted, and told everyone where to look.

The prime minister and the rest of his government have been answering criticisms of this mess today by pointing to the government’s achievements. He’s right, too – there’s been work done on the free trade deal with Singapore, income tax cuts have got through the senate, legislation dealing with the Victorian firefighters issue has been sorted. On paper it looks like a good week for the government.

But these lists of successes should, in fact, ram the point home: you can’t get any credit for achievements nobody notices.

Christopher Pyne, by the way, is a man who knows how important the performative element of politics is. The parliamentary error last night may not have been his fault, directly, but he runs the ship and needs to steady it.

Speaking of show business, get ready for a flood of photographs from the senate. Until now, photographs have only been permitted of a senator when that senator is speaking. It was a stupid and arcane rule, and those who have campaigned against it – very recently Derryn Hinch, and for a long time Fairfax photographer Andrew Meares – deserve applause for getting it ditched. If there are any adolescent games being played in the upper house, from now on we’ll get them in full Technicolor.

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