The twin debacles of the Campbell Primary School procurement process and the phantom needs analysis report on aquatic facilities for Woden - each within the purview of now ex-minister Yvette Berry - are further proof we need to be done with self-government.

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In both instances, the narrative the Labor government has been busily spinning is that poor Yvette Berry was let down. So very badly let down. Again.

First the minister was let down by sports and recreation bureaucrats who said they did the aquatic facility needs analysis for Woden but actually didn't.

And now she was let down, again, by her then chief of staff and then Education Department director-general who were found by the ACT Integrity Commission to have engaged in corrupt conduct around the Campbell Primary School procurement.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr told the media this week that Ms Berry had been "badly let down" by those around her in the whole Campbell Primary School fiasco.

Ms Berry, herself, said in relation to the Auditor-General's finding around the missing aquatic needs analysis for Woden that public servants had also "let the government down".

Ms Berry says she knew nothing of each disaster.

Just let down by those who are there to advise her, including her chief of staff, literally the most important person in her office, a political appointment who is her right-hand man or woman, who makes sure her working world runs as smoothly as possible. Who is there to see and hear everything and let their boss know about it.

During her tenure, Ms Berry also showed some incredible chutzpah around the whole Big Splash debate. She constantly acted like she was on team Save Big Splash and that she was somehow an independent bystander with........

© Canberra Times