In the end, Malcolm Turnbull concluded that among the unpalatable options available to him in the dual citizenship crisis, doing nothing was the riskiest path of all.

His government's one-seat majority had begun falling apart, mid-term.

Defending the status quo was defending the indefensible. Worse, it was tantamount to a government siding with chaos and tumult when they exist to bring order, certainty, predictability.

Through no fault of his own, Turnbull found himself helming a show that, to paraphrase Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, was starting to resemble a military academy - "bits of it kept on passing out".