There's a touch of Samson-in-the temple about the Gillard government -- it's a government that could bring itself down and everything around it.
In the Bible, Samson is an Israelite blessed with superhuman strength. An angel promises Samson's mother that her son's strength will endure for as long as he does not cut his hair. Samson uses his powers to win many battles against the Philistines.
After Samson falls in love with Delilah, the Philistines pay her to find out the source of his strength. When Delilah discovers Samson's secret, she has a servant cut off his hair. The Philistines capture Samson, cut out his eyes and imprison him.
Later, the Philistines celebrate their victory and Samson is brought to a temple to entertain the assembled masses. By this time his hair has grown back Samson asks his guard if he can lean against the temple's pillars. Yelling ''Let me die with the Philistines'', he pushes against the pillars and destroys himself, the temple and everyone inside.
As the Book of Judges tells it: ''Samson killed more people at his death than he had killed during his life.''
The Gillard government might be in its death throes for months. The carbon tax, the mining tax, the broadband network and asylum seeker policy are now viewed as simply political issues to be managed until the next opinion poll.
The restraint that comes with a government implementing policy it may then have to manage during its next term in office is missing.
Impending electoral mortality may have been the reason behind the extraordinary statement from federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese that the political coverage of Rupert Murdoch's News limited was a ''real concern'' and ''they've got to stop this sort of nonsense''. Politicians complaining about the media are nothing new. What's different this time is that there's the threat of a media inquiry in the air. Government has done nothing to dispel the impression that an inquiry will be less about media balance and more about retribution.
A media inquiry is being urged by the Greens, who know their time as a co-equal partner in government will soon be over. It will be a very long time before an Australian prime minister promises to share a weekly cup of tea with the leader of the Greens.
Those barracking for a media inquiry need to be careful. There are more than a few Coalition MPs who would welcome an investigation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's understanding of political balance.
Greens leader Bob Brown was right when he said there is a blurring of news and opinion in the Australian media. But that's been happening for years and it's none of the government's business. Consumers can decide for themselves whether they want to buy what media organisations are selling.
Julia Gillard's attack on the High Court after its decision on the legality of sending asylum seekers to Malaysia, and Anthony Albanese's attack on the media, came only weeks after all sides of politics called for calm in the face of community anger over the carbon tax.
The people who are angry about the carbon tax are entitled to feel confused. It appears prime ministers can be angry at High Court judges and newspaper editors, but voters can't be angry at politicians who break their promises.
The irony of the PM's complaining that the Chief Justice expressed an opinion before his appointment that was different from the one after he became Chief Justice could not have escaped her.
A government facing an almost inevitable election defeat isn't constrained by the ordinary conventions of political conduct. As the carbon tax grows in unpopularity by the day, the chances of it being implemented increase. The government and the Greens know they have only a few months in which to pass it into legislation. The carbon tax is also the ultimate poison pill. It will take years and billions of dollars for an Abbott government to unwind.
In a normal or semi-normal political environment, a government would at least pretend it had some sort of mandate to enact something as dramatic and far-reaching as the carbon tax.
But Australian politics has been far from normal ever since Kevin Rudd's decapitation. The sight of those business leaders who, a year ago, were calling for a carbon tax so they could have ''certainty'' now calling for the tax to be delayed, only adds to the air of unreality that pervades Canberra.
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