When Craig Kelly walked into the Coalition party room on Tuesday morning, he was armed with a piece of paper that would throw up questions about the government’s control of the House of Representatives.
By submitting his letter of resignation from the Liberal Party and moving to the crossbench, he’s left the Coalition with the slimmest majority possible in the 151-seat lower house.
So, can it still govern the nation effectively?
What led to Craig Kelly’s departure?
The Member for Hughes has been spending a lot of time on his social media outlets over the past year, spruiking unfounded treatments for COVID-19 and questioning the efficacy of vaccines.
It led to a rebuke from the Prime Minister, who effectively told him to pull his head in, saying Australians should get their medical advice from the nation’s health authorities, not a Liberal backbencher.
Mr Morrison had been publicly backing Mr Kelly until the then-Liberal backbencher clashed with Labor’s Tanya Plibersek about COVID-19 treatments inside Parliament House.
The Prime Minister called Mr Kelly into his office after footage of the encounter attracted national headlines.
Mr Kelly went quiet for a while, but then the posting recommenced.
His announcement in the party room that he was quitting was accompanied by an assertion that he did not want to be viewed as a distraction or a burden to the government.