Gladys Berejiklian is celebrating her “miracle” win in the byelection in NSW’s Hunter Valley but Scott Morrison will be just as relieved. Labor’s devastatingly bad result may be largely due to voter satisfaction with how the Berejiklian government – and the Premier in particular - has handled the pandemic.

This has enabled Berejiklian to withstand what is now a regular roll call of shocking, sleazy behaviour by several of her ministers as well as her own humiliation last year over revelations of her secret relationship with another ethically challenged MP.