Given the Albanese government is about to enter its 10th month on the back foot since the defeat of the Voice referendum last October, the cabinet reshuffle expected to be announced on Sunday is of vital importance.
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While, despite the best efforts of the right-wing pundits who keep talking up the Coalition's chances, the odds this will be a one-term government are Buckley's and none. But the risk of minority government is growing with almost every poll.
Peter Dutton, who was seen by some as a seat-warmer unlikely to lead the LNP to the next election when he replaced Scott Morrison in 2022, has done a remarkable job in closing the gap.
In June 2022, Mr Albanese led Mr Dutton as the preferred PM by 59 per cent to 25 per cent. According to the most recent polling that 29 per cent gap has closed to 6 per cent with Mr Albanese on 45 per cent and Mr Dutton on 39 per cent.
And, perhaps even more importantly, only 34 per cent of respondents are satisfied with Mr Albanese's performance compared to 36 per cent for Mr Dutton.
Two years ago 61 per cent were satisfied with Mr Albanese compared to 37 per cent for Mr Dutton.
The LNP has also managed to slip ahead of Labor on the two-party preferred vote in recent weeks with 51 per cent to the ALP's 49 per cent.
If that was to be reflected at the next poll it is difficult to see how Labor would be able to govern in its own right.
It would be wrong to give Mr Dutton and the LNP all of the credit for this reversal of fortune, of course. Labor has been its own worst enemy for well over a year now.
By failing to make any effort to obtain bipartisan support for the Voice referendum - an exercise in pure hubris given no referendum has ever succeeded without it - Mr Albanese doomed the "yes" case to failure.
This inflicted an unnecessary humiliation on the ALP and created a perception it was preoccupied with a niche legacy issue when it should have been addressing the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.
Numerous attempts to manage a reset since last October have all been derailed by what some might see as bad luck but which others have been quick to attribute to ministerial incompetence and bad judgement.
The failure by Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to have a Plan B in the event the court ruled against the government on indefinite detention was risible.
To have simply apparently accepted departmental advice the case was a lay-down lay-down misere was an act of naivety that is still hard to understand.
And then things just went from bad to worse with Mr Giles digging himself into deeper and deeper holes almost every time he spoke to the media.
It is for this reason that while it is unlikely there will be any movement in the upper echelons of the government over the weekend, Ms O'Neil and Mr Giles are on very thin ice.
While many ministers, including the Treasurer, the Foreign Affairs Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, and Bill Shorten in the NDIS, have impressed in their roles, these two have been albatross around the government's neck for months.
At a time when voters are hypersensitive to the issues of immigration, cost of living and energy security, lacklustre and gaffe-prone ministers are a distraction Labor cannot afford.
This is particularly so given it could be facing multiple interest rate rises between now and the next election.
It seems highly unlikely come Monday either Mr Giles or Ms O'Neil will be in their current roles.
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