You call that inconvenient timing Barnaby?

A clearly angry Malcolm Turnbull conveyed a sense of Mick "Crocodile" Dundee with his bombshell statement to a stunned House of Representatives when advising that his Deputy Prime Minister will not be acting prime minister next week.

Just as Barnaby Joyce's troubles appeared to stabilise ever-so-slightly - at least within his party room - Turnbull concluded his deputy's public reputation was beyond redemption, announcing that Joyce would take leave to "consider his own position".

Taken with Joyce's non-selection for higher duties, Turnbull's words amounted to a Clayton's dismissal by a Prime Minister with limited options - the resignation you demand when you cannot literally demand a resignation due to the Coalition architecture.