Tony Abbott tells us why Peter Garrett should resign his portfolio:

“A company director who doesn’t put safe systems of work in place where workers subsequently die will typically in New South Wales be charged with industrial manslaughter. This is a very, very serious error. He has to be responsible for failing to adequately heed these warnings and that’s why I say that he should pay for these four deaths with his job.”

If you follow that logic on ministerial responsibility — that any death caused by a government policy or program should trigger the relevant Minister’s removal — there would be Ministers’ heads served up on platters with monotonous regularity.

Take defence. Operation Slipper in Afghanistan has so far claimed the lives of 10 ADF personnel — so it should have been goodbye to Peter Reith, Robert Hill, Brendan Nelson, Joel Fitzgibbon and John Faulkner.

In earlier days, the Snowy Mountains Scheme claimed no less than 121 workers’ lives — bye-bye Nelson Lemmon, Richard Casey, Wilfrid Kent Hughes, Allen Fairhall, Gordon Freeth, John Gorton, Bert Kelly, Reginald Wright, Gough Whitlam, James Cavanagh and Les Johnson.

Then there are government health policies that result in deaths, road building, infrastructure, regional skirmishes, building programs, etc, etc.

You get the drift. It’s a pity the Opposition Leader doesn’t.