The zeal with which the PM, and others, have put the boot into some states, especially Victoria, over their bungling of the virus crisis has often left them open to claims this was a case of "the pot calling the kettle black".
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That has never been more true than on Friday when the aged care Royal Commission released its special report on the impact of COVID-19 on nursing home residents.
The report was a damning indictment of the federal government's failure to fulfil its responsibility to oversee the way nursing homes are operated.
That failure was an issue long before the pandemic.
That's why it was necessary to establish the Royal Commission in the first place.
Although the operators have been copping most of the heat it is apparent federal authorities have been missing in action for many years.
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This has been to the grave detriment of the health and wellbeing of some of our most vulnerable Australians.
Matters have only gone from bad to worse since then.
Hundreds of people have died, often needlessly, due in large part to a lack of planning, inadequate staffing and staff training, and shortages of PPE.
It was reported last week that since the start of the pandemic the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has visited just 30 of the 220 nursing homes with coronavirus outbreaks.
At least 670 nursing home residents, 633 of them in Victoria, have died, many without having been able to say goodbye to their families and loved ones.
This nation has not experienced loneliness, misery and despair on this scale in peacetime since the last pandemic a century ago.
For hundreds of thousands of elderly people this has been the loneliest, saddest, and most terrifying year of their lives.
That's why it is good the first of the six recommendations made by the Royal Commission is for the federal government to give providers extra funds to hire more staff so that family visits to nursing homes can resume.
Most of the other recommendations, such as increasing funding for mental health services to nursing home residents during the pandemic, and establishing a national aged care plan for COVID-19 through the national cabinet, are complete no-brainers.
