If Scott Morrison thinks what he said on Wednesday will mollify colleagues left incensed by revelations he did not trust them to do their jobs at the height of the pandemic then his well documented belief in miracles is very much alive and well.
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The former Prime Minister's hour-long press conference to explain why he felt it necessary to secretly shadow five of his senior ministers was peppered with contradictions. It also raised more questions than it answered.
And, given his repeated refusal to acknowledge he had done anything wrong, his apologies to former colleagues including Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann are clearly of the hollow "I'm terribly sorry that you are so upset about this" variety.
The most obvious inconsistency was Mr Morrison's explanation of why four of the five secret ministerial appointments were kept from the incumbent ministers, let alone the rest of cabinet and the Australian public.
His assertion that Mathias Cormann, Keith Pitt, Josh Frydenberg and Karen Andrews were not told there was a spectral figure peeping over their shoulders because "I also did not wish ministers to be second guessing themselves ... " just doesn't stack up.
The only appointment that made sense, and which created the template for the power-grabs that followed, was handled very differently. That was when Mr Morrison had himself sworn in as co-Health Minister with Greg Hunt on March 14, 2020.
While the question of whether or not Parliament and the public should have been told is open to debate, it is a matter of record Mr Hunt was aware of the plan and accepted the reasoning. That was that it would be reckless to leave the singular powers available to the Health Minister during the pandemic in just one pair of hands. Also, there needed to be a backup if COVID, or other factors, rendered Mr Hunt hors de combat.
"I trust you mate but I'm swearing myself in as Health Minister too," he told Mr Hunt.
There was no such conversation with Mathias Cormann when the then PM had himself sworn in as co-Finance Minister on March 20 although Mr Morrison has since indicated he expected others to keep the incumbent in the loop.
He did, however, tell at least one of two News Corp journalists with whom he was collaborating on a book. Given neither Mr Cormann or even his deputy, Treasurer and long-term house guest Josh Frydenberg, were told at the time this remains one of the most truly remarkable aspects of the affair.
Mr Morrison can't have it both ways.
The former PM's claim he had confidence in four of the ministers because he didn't intervene in their portfolios falls under the category of "pull the other leg, it plays Jingle Bells".
Mr Morrison believed he needed the clout to trump key cabinet colleagues. Ipso facto he did not trust them.
It is this, more than anything else, that has fuelled a spreading wave of outrage on both sides of politics.
Very few of Mr Morrison's colleagues, including his replacement as party leader Peter Dutton, seem strongly motivated to go into bat for a former prime minister who obviously - but secretly - viewed many of them with something not far short of studied contempt.
While Mr Albanese would like to leverage this into a club with which to clobber the opposition, that is going to be difficult given the way LNP ministers and MPs were blindsided just as badly as everybody else in the country.
The biggest loser is Mr Morrison. His work to help steer Australia through the worst of the pandemic with a comparatively low loss of life and economic damage is now permanently overshadowed by what some would euphemistically describe as "character issues".
