Cue the discussion of deck chairs and the Titanic. After a corruption scandal took out the ACT's deputy chief minister last week and forced a cabinet reshuffle on Monday, this old faithful metaphor was pushed back into service.
Opposition Leader Mark Parton came out strong. No, you can't keep rearranging the chairs and expecting a different result. The ship has hit the iceberg, is taking on water and the prognosis is terminal. The whole government was "corrupt", he claimed, in a fairly creative interpretation of the Integrity Commission's Operation Kingfisher report.
But there's always an opportunity in politics. On Monday, Chief Minister Andrew Barr took his to present a new deputy, the widely tipped Rachel Stephen-Smith, and new minister, Caitlin Tough, while getting to announce they had both been elevated unanimously in a caucus meeting earlier in the morning.
"And I put that in marked contrast to what you've seen in other political parties and other political movements, not just in this territory, but around Australia," he said, with self-evident self-satisfaction and no time for the tired metaphor of sea-faring seating arrangements.
But if the cabinet reshuffle is not repositioned deckchairs, it's a finely balanced inflatable lifeboat. Perfectly safe but one wrong move and it will tip over.
The workload is evenly distributed. Chris Steel has been relieved of transport, which might quell some of the angst that prompted his censure over the handling of the MyWay+ rollout, and responsibility has been transferred to Tara Cheyne, whose stint in city services has shown she is capable and highly engaged at government's operational coalface.
Mr Barr wasn't having it when it was suggested it might look like a demotion for Mr Steel, who takes on sport with a genuine interest. He keeps Treasury and is still in charge of building light rail to Woden, remaining a key figure in cabinet.
Marisa Paterson takes on health, an infamous portfolio that generates plenty of bad news that touches the lives of everyone.
Given Ms Stephen-Smith has done some heavy lifting on improving the hospital system and reconfiguring the health service's culture, Dr Paterson has the chance to come in with a fresh face and some of the experience of corrections and emergency services to lead the portfolio into a new phase.
One of Ms Stephen-Smith's first orders of business in the education portfolio was to call the Australian Education Union, which has been locked in a long and tense enterprise bargaining process. She is still responsible for the public service and needs to sort out the pay deal for the government's workers. It will be an early test for the minister with a decade's experience.
Suzanne Orr will take on housing just as the insourcing agenda for public housing maintenance kicks into gear and pressure builds on government to get actual roofs over people's heads.
But she also has a new title: Minister for Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity. It's a vote of confidence in Ms Orr, who was dropped from cabinet in a previous term, that she'll be able to manage the impact of significant changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme being driven by the Commonwealth.
The opposition wants to put a broom through the administration. The clue's in the name. Labor needs this new-look cabinet to pull through. It can hardly afford to lose any more ministers between now and the election in October 2028. It needs them to perform well.
And if Ms Stephen-Smith does her bit to keep that inflatable life boat on an even keel through the turbulent sea of minority government and general political fractiousness, Mr Barr might now have a successor-in-waiting who can stick the landing.
