Revelations of Barnaby Joyce's indiscrete, critical text message about Prime Minister Scott Morrison last year, while showing his lack of judgment, discipline and loyalty, also highlight the National Party's ineptness in restoring him as leader.
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Joyce should resign regardless of whether the Prime Minister has accepted his apology, and if not, his party should take the initiative and remove him as their leader.
As it stands, Joyce, through his indiscretions and unpredictability, has become an embarrassment and a liability to the government.
Moreover, since being restored as leader he has achieved little in terms of the promised policy breakthroughs that are supposed to differentiate the Nationals from their senior partner.
The Liberals must surely be asking whether the Nationals can be trusted for anything.
After all, the Nationals have a long record of undermining their Coalition partner, of interfering in their choice of leaders, and in threatening to sabotage the government if they do not get their way.
It was the Nationals who demanded a prime minister be replaced for the price of joining the first federal Coalition government in 1923.
It was their leader Dr Earle Page who publicly attacked Robert Menzies to thwart his rise to the prime ministership, and who then led his party out of government.
It has been the Nationals who have threatened the Coalition if they do not get their way on a range of policy issues and favourable electoral distribution systems.
It was the Nationals who after 23 years in Coalition government deserted the Liberals when Labor came to power in 1972, refusing to form a coalition in opposition. The Nationals even went looking for another partner, only coming back to the Liberals when that failed, and with Labor threatening fairer electoral redistribution.
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It was the Nationals who in 1987 caused the federal Coalition to split due to their disastrous "Joh for PM" campaign, which undermined John Howard's election chances and contributed to further instability.
Although the Nationals currently have a good total representation in Federal Parliament, this only camouflages that they are a greatly diminished party in both the number of House of Reps seats they hold and the votes they attract - less than half what they once received.
They are a diminished party, too, in the ministries they currently hold. Once the Nationals held key positions like Treasury and Trade, but now, as Joyce himself complained last year, most of their portfolios are shared with the Liberals, who decide the policy.
Over the years, many have predicted the demise of the National Party. They have repeatedly defied such predictions.
Now, given the declining popularity of the government, Joyce's latest debacle, and the competition from both major and minor parties and independents, such predictions may finally come to fruition.
The challenge for the Nationals has long been to articulate what exactly they stand for - what exactly they bring to the policy table that distinguishes them from the other parties.
Joyce was supposed to be the solution - but as recent events show, he has become the problem.
Whatever the next federal election outcome, the Liberals must seriously consider whether the Nationals are worthy of being part of any future Coalition arrangements.
- Dr Scott Prasser's chapter, "The Coalition, 1987-1995", will be in the forthcoming new book The Art of Coalition, edited by David Lovell and Andrew Blyth.
