You take the bullet, we'll make a soft landing: Ministers and their advisors

But the privileged and powerful position of Ministerial Adviser cannot come without reciprocal obligation. Indeed, advisers serve at the pleasure of their political masters who can, generally speaking, dismiss them for any reason at all.

In the family favourite movie Dave, in which an American Presidential impersonator, Dave Kovac, finds himself having to fill in for the real, fatally ill President, there is a quaint plot thread involving the assigned body-guard.

Dave realises that Dwayne, his bodyguard, is in the invidious position of having to potentially risk his life or "take a bullet" to save him, a man only pretending to be the President.

By the movie¹s end, Dwayne looks earnestly at Dave and assures him "I really would have taken a bullet for you".

While it's a cute homily, that is the position most ministerial staff are in for the duration of their contracts.

If it is considered that the sacrifice of a ministerial staffer can assuage the public expectation of a scalp for some governmental impropriety, then those unfortunate souls are expected to take a bullet.

But then there is an expectation on behalf of the staffers that they will be "looked after" with a cushioned landing, either somewhere in a Government Department, or with a friendly employer.

The same goes for Ministers and MPs for that matter. If a Ministerial or political scalp will protect the government of the day, then that person usually takes a bullet for the greater governmental good.

That has recently become standard practice in Queensland and around the country. It is very rare that you see a head of government take ultimate responsibility and stand down without being dragged there by some form of Royal Commission or other legal proceeding.

There are several possible reasons why the proven tactic failed in this instance, but the main contributing factor was Premier Beattie's promise to a journalist that Ms Mullan would never work in government again.

After all, you can't have people employed in government who have knowingly misled police can you? When a journalist from Brisbane's Courier Mail phoned the sacked adviser to tell her there would be no soft landing, the adviser then had no reason to remain loyal, as she realised she was paying a higher price than would normally be demanded.

Not only was she to be sacked, her career prospects were to be severely restricted by the Premier's contention she would never work in government again.