When Tony Abbott told colleagues he would clear off a few barnacles before Christmas, he was speaking to a rising tide of frustration in the party room about the government's slow progress out of the political doldrums.
Some were reassured. Others unconvinced. After all, it came in a speech one MP described as "more bizarre than Star Trek" in which the Prime Minister had described the government's performance in glowing terms, saying 2014 had been a terrific year for the Coalition.
The barnacles line was, like so much in contemporary politics, casually delivered, and yet very deliberate.
John Howard had used the same term back in the late 1990s to reassure the "nervous nellies" that he could navigate the course back to the promised land of electoral popularity.
Even Howard's deployment was probably pre-arranged - the result of advice from a senior Liberal Party functionary, Lynton Crosby.
One of the keenest strategists in right-wing politics, Crosby is these days ensconced in Britain and last year advised British Prime Minister David Cameron to "get the barnacles off the boat" before the 2015 election contest. The Telegraph's James Kirkup explained that Crosby was advocating "getting rid of extraneous policies and projects that distract from the core message, slowing down HMS Conservative in its voyage towards 2015".
Abbott's soothing balm to the backbench was timely and yet carefully non-specific. He chose not to nominate the "barnacles", prompting speculation that it might even be a reference to dud ministers making a reshuffle this year more likely.
Most, however, did not have to think too hard about what should be scraped off the hull – a patina of un-mandated, poorly argued, and woefully mismanaged savings measures announced in a budget that had famously been described by one senior figure as a "stinking carcass around the government's neck" - pension changes, the GP-tax, higher university fees; fuel excise indexation; dole cuts, and, of course, paid parental leave.
Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have maintained their equanimity over the budget despite its toxic political implications.
Their assessment is that voters will come around once they see that tough action had been necessary.
Yet they seem to have no real strategy for getting to the point where wise hindsight can operate.
MPs from the greenest rookies to the more seasoned campaigners and frontline ministers, are conscious of approaching the halfway point next year just as they brace for another tough budget and while they are still weighed down by the last ham-fisted effort.
From a barnstorming 30+ seat landslide in 2013, the coalition's stocks have gone in just one direction ever since: down. A one-term government is suddenly a real fear.
They want their leadership to sharpen up, dispense with fights it cannot win, and find a way forward on the things that must be done. What they're getting is dissembling and confusion.
That Abbott was talking about the GP co-payment is beyond argument. Not only is it the least popular and least possible reform unveiled, it was actually nominated on background by the PM's office on Wednesday as the prime "barnacle". The higher education changes, were mentioned in contradistinction, as being crucial and as having some chance of success in feverish negotiations with the crossbenches.
Yet in a sign of broadening dysfunction, tending towards panic, Hockey doubled down on the co-payment on Thursday morning, declaring there had been no change to the detail nor to the status of the GP policy.
Abbott was forced into line. It was a win for Hockey but a setback for the government.
Coalitionists were appalled. Talk of divisions in cabinet abounds.
Once again, the government's underdeveloped communications capacities have been exposed.
And once again, the government has recommitted to a dud policy.
As one senior figure mused on Friday: "If the barnacle is not the GP charge, and it's not university fees, what the hell is it?"
It's a good question.
Hockey's successful rearguard action has two implications: It saved an aspiration to recover $3.6 billion for the budget to be raised by the co-payment. But it also has increased the pressure on Abbott to dump his $5.5 billion PPL scheme.
Talk of bypassing the Senate on the co-payment by using regulation to slug bulk-billed patients seems fanciful. It seems certain to fall at the same disallowance hurdle in the Senate that took out the financial advice changes recently.
That was an embarrassment the government cannot afford to repeat. But it will face more in coming weeks unless Abbott gets serious about clearing the decks - or hull as the case may be - and ensures his flotilla is sailing in unison when the wind change finally comes.
