A week ago, I was on my way to visit my darling mother-in-law to celebrate her 96th when the trains seized up – as they seem to do nearly every day. I was locked in the warm embrace of a NSW train carriage far longer than I needed to be. I made it for the birthday cake, at least. On Friday, I heard Jones trolling both the Opera House’s chief executive Louise Herron and the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in a segment on his morning program on 2GB. And what’s Berejiklian done in response? Picked the wrong side. Again.

So I have a mea - so maxima - culpa to make. Last year, I wrote in praise of the Premier - five reasons for her to replace Mike Baird, who’d had enough. Look, some columns don’t age well and I’d be the first to admit it. The attributes I listed are still important – bringing more diversity to the Liberal Party, which matters, since it has more men named after apostles than women in its midst. She’s good with people; humble and hard working.

But she must take a stand, whether it’s to discipline the flock she leads or to dig in against the vulgar and arrogant, which includes the deeply unpleasant Alan Jones. Whether or not she kowtowed to Jones – or just to the racing lobby – her position on turning our lambent Opera House into a tawdry ad is disgraceful. At the very least – the very very least – she should have told Jones that his treatment of Herron was unacceptable. But nope, Berejiklian’s accepted it; and so, clearly, has Macquarie Media. I seriously hope it isn’t coming with the rest of Fairfax to Channel Nine because it’s a national media embarrassment.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (which needs to grow some bills. It even wants to grow some.) has never put licence restrictions on Macquarie (as it did with Kyle Sandilands’ erstwhile broadcaster) even though Jones’s breaches have been significant. They demean our national character. The race riots at Cronulla. The lies about climate change. He is an ageing tyrant who should not be permitted to broadcast hate, misinformation and misjudgments. On Monday, ACMA had an avalanche of calls about Jones’s execrable behaviuor. A spokesperson said: “Members of the public have expressed concern to ACMA that the broadcast was disrespectful, rude and aggressive.” Of course, it will be hived off to the broadcaster in the first instance, which will file them with the delete button. You’d love Macquarie to be forced to handover its complaints to ACMA to log on a daily basis, wouldn’t you?

So hate speech has coincided with Berejiklian’s weakness – that puts us all at risk in this state because the Premier is allowing bullies to win. I won’t say that Jones’s targets are always women. Not always.

Of course, that’s just the here and now. Last month, Berejiklian was again humiliated. She has an inability to manage the moody men in her party and – again - sides with the wrong ones. That wouldn’t be so bad – I mean, it’s not as if any Liberal leaders do a good job of managing their troops – but she was seriously exposed when she backed treasurer Dominic Perrottet instead of Ray Williams, her minister for multiculturalism.

Look, perhaps I was seduced by Berejiklian’s big success - the introduction of the Opal card. But since she appointed Andrew the Inconstant as transport minister, he too has trolled her nearly every day. Could there be any other reason for the constant chaos of Sydney transport network? God forbid you wanted to catch a train on Monday.

But there are other problems. Domestic violence services should be core business for the state government. Instead, confusion reigns – one week we are told court advocacy services will be put out to tender. The next week we are told that there’s been a change of plan because tendering wouldn’t work in that sector. Would Berejiklian support pill testing? Nope. She thinks her base won’t support pill testing. Perhaps that base prefers to support the coffins of the kids who will take contaminated drugs and die while the rest of us take a moral position on drugs. The mayhem of the stadium and the gold medal backflips. The light rail. Who will ever forget the light rail?

And meanwhile, the top rating morning broadcaster concerns himself with horse racing. He's a loathsome bully who does not have the best interests of NSW at heart.

I’m in despair and you should be too.

Jenna Price is an academic at the University of Technology Sydney and a Herald columnist.