Former prime minister Tony Abbott reportedly warned a gathering of Young Liberals in Manly earlier this year that their party in NSW was "in the grip" of "the Premier State faction" – a none-too-subtle dig at the ascendant government relations firm founded by factional leaders Michael Photios of the moderates and Nick Campbell of the centre-right.

Abbott made this claim, naturally, three months after Photios had stepped down from the leadership of his faction – through whose ranks have risen Premier Gladys Berejiklian and federal ministers Marise Payne, Arthur Sinodinos and Paul Fletcher. But then the former PM's adherence to factuality and logic is now so dead, buried and cremated we ought not linger too long at their misapplication.