They were searching for leadership. They didn't find it in Canberra.

They needed someone who would explain to them why Australia has implemented the public health measures that have saved thousands. They needed somebody prepared to say that by living together as a community we can enjoy better, stronger, and more fulfilling lives than we can by standing apart as individuals. Someone who would explain why this is a great country.

What did they get?

A shrinking simulacrum of a leader. A man desperately weaving, squirming and dodging his responsibility as leader of this country.

Scott Morrison had a simple choice.

He could explain, carefully and precisely, the critical role of vaccines and mask mandates in protecting the elderly and disabled. He could have gone through the facts: explained how the virus works. He could have asked who would want their grandparents to die because they'd refused to listen to public health warnings. So what did the Prime Minister say?

"I'm going to be very clear", he began. The "Commonwealth government has only ever supported mandates that relate to aged care workers, disability workers, and those who are working in high-risk situations in the health system. All other mandates that relate to vaccines have been imposed unilaterally by state governments. They have not been put in place by the Commonwealth government. In fact, the Commonwealth government cannot impose such a mandate."

Struggling under the burden of responsibility he slipped to the bottom of the barrel. Just when you think Morrison can go no further he does, shape-shifting so he can slink even lower, drifting as far as he possibly can from the most basic requirements of his job: explaining why he's so useless he can't even be bothered holding a hose.

Instead of proudly owning the very measures that have allowed Australia to escape the deaths of thousands, Morrison fled the field. It's all the states' fault, he insisted, blame them. It was among the most pathetic attempts to abandon responsibility that we've ever seen. He passed the buck to the states, insisting protesters raise such issues with Premiers, not him. God, no. After all, he's just Prime Minister, not somebody who actually does things.

His bleating continued.

PROTESTS IN CANBERRA:

Morrison should hand over to someone who can lead the country, now. Then he could get back to practising playing the ukulele over dinner. It was bizarre.

This weekend we saw the slightly pathetic reality of this very ordinary person. So utterly banal and so poorly equipped to lead this country that the sooner he abandons the pretence he's doing so, the better for all of us.

Contempt isn't the sort of emotion that people forget quickly. Like a drop of dye in a puddle of water it gradually spreads, slowly but irrevocably colouring perceptions. Privately, most Liberal politicians have already moved to a post-Morrison stage. Peter Dutton's off on one side, barking at the moon and yelling irresponsibly about war while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is on the other, busy collecting numbers. Not financial ones - nobody cares about the economy any more. He's calculating how to see off other challengers in the future leadership ballot.

By-election results are always interpreted as harbingers, voices prophesying what's coming next and the weekend's polls were no exception. The almost certain loss, for example, for the first time ever of Bega - a naturally conservative electorate. The emphatic swing against Fiona Kotvojs, a candidate who Morrison personally endorsed in the last poll (which she also lost). The perceptible shift to Labor of booths in Willoughby that have large numbers of typically Coalition but ethnically Chinese voters. Everything indicates now, for the first time since the pandemic hit, this government has irretrievably lost the confidence of voters.

It doesn't mean they have chosen Labor - simply that they've looked carefully at this government and found it badly wanting. The anger and disillusionment electors have expressed in this vote is within the range of typical results. When former premier Mike Baird resigned mid-term there was a swing of 24.2 percent against the Liberals, yet his successor Gladys Berejiklian went on to win the subsequent general election. This time the anti-government push in her seat has been limited to 13.5 percent with no Labor candidate (a strong independent received more than 32 percent of the first preference vote).

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This is the issue that will be faced by so many of the challengers in the coming federal poll. Although some (like independent ACT Senate candidates former Wallabies Captain David Pocock and law professor Kim Rubenstein) would be terrific adornments to any parliament, overcoming the stifling dynamic of incumbency that benefits the major parties is incredibly difficult. The prospect of either shoving their way past current Liberal Senator Zed Seselja (who only requires a third of the vote to be returned) in many contests still appear to be near insurmountable. The vital preconditions for a change of government, however, are now in place.

We change governments about once a decade - only twice since the year 2000 and on seven occasions in the 75 years since the end of World War II.

Voters need to be extremely disillusioned and disgusted with a government in order to dispatch it. So angry they want to vote it out because they can see no future in which it plays a meaningful part. The crowds of people choking the streets of the capital last week may not yet want Labor, but certainly don't think Morrison's offering any answers.