There we were, all set with a podcast on David Chandler’s resignation in the can, when we heard that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had invited Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos to leave at her own chosen speed (one for the Dylan fans, there).

Now, we could have fudged it with a new intro but Big Dave’s not-very-imminent departure was already old news and the vapour trail from Ms Petinos' expensive fragrance was still lingering from her exit, so it was back in the bunker for a re-take.

And, full disclosure, there was another reason: we said in the original recording that there was no way that the Premier would sack her, having just supported her while he was in India.

Ooops! What does this tell us? Maybe things were a lot worse in Fair Trading than he or we thought.

The one thing notably absent in most other commentary about her departure is any suggestion that it had anything to do with her throwing Building Commissioner Chandler under the bus, over a dubious claim that he had misled parliament.

But we think that was definitely an element in the decision to send her back to Miranda. Loyalty has its own built-in form of instant karma.

Other topics include chats about the two stories from the Tribunal that appear on this page -one about a dispute over fire safety and another about a battle to get a second dog into a unit that had permission for one.

And a quick correction, contrary to what I say on the podcast, the Castle apartment block has six whole-floor apartments, not eight or 10, and the home of pooches Peach and Zodiac is a semi in a strata scheme, not a townhouse.

That's what I get for talking about stories before I've written them.

TRANSCRIPT IN FULL

Jimmy  00:00

Sometimes I think, someone in government waits until they know we've recorded our podcast, and then they make big announcements.

Sue  00:09

Yes, so we did a big track about David Chandler and now on Sunday night, Dominic Perrottet's office issued his statement about David Chandler.

Jimmy  00:20

Well, actually, it was a statement about Elini Petinos. We'll be talking about Eleni Petinos and Dominic Perrottet's response to complaints about her behaviour. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.

Sue  00:39

And I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.

Jimmy  00:41

And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.

[MUSIC]

Jimmy

Okay, last night, as you said, the Premier of New South Wales issued a statement about Eleni Petinos, the Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading. I'm just going to read what he said, and we can talk about her response, and then, we'll look at what led up to this whole thing. So, this is what Premier Perrottet said last night...

'Today I spoke with the Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading, Eleni Petinos, after some further matters concerning her were brought to my attention. In light of these matters, Ms Petino's service as a minister will cease with immediate effect and I will write to the Governor in this regard tomorrow. Minister for Customer Services and Digital Government, Victor Dominello will assume Ms Petino's portfolio responsibilities.' So basically, he sacked her, with immediate effect, Which is incredible really, because usually, Premiers would say 'I spoke to a Minister and they have resigned.'

It's really quite unusual, for them to be sacked so abruptly like that. Which kind of suggests that the rumours about her being a fairly acerbic person, who's not prepared to give an inch on much, may be true.

Sue  02:15

Perhaps, but they are allegations at this stage; we don't really know. But I guess there'll be (yet another) inquiry.

Jimmy  02:25

I'll get you to read what her response was.

Sue  02:27

'Tonight, the Premier informed me I would no longer be a Minister in his government. I'm proud of my work while I served the people of New South Wales as Minister for Business and Minis...