Just what is happening up there in the Territory? Insomniacs and news junkies stood together as Sky News’ Dan Bourchier popped up on our screens at midnight. The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, had just gotten the boot. And only a few hours later at 1am the new Chief Minister, Lord of Darwin and Alice Springs, Master of crocodiles and dingoes, stood before us.

Willem Westra Van Holthe was now in charge of the show in Darwin. Giles had lost the confidence of the Country Liberal Party, he was up to his neck in a police scandal and Queensland’s LNP apocalypse had given them all a wee fright. Well, what a shock. But it was nothing compared to the gasps heard throughout the nation when we were all told that Giles was refusing to resign.

When asked by the media in the mid-morning who the Chief Minister was, the NT Administrator’s office said, ‘There is no chief minister.’

He couldn’t have seemed more doomed. Mr Giles himself had replaced Terry Mills – the man who brought the CLP back to power after 11 years two years before – in March 2013. If Giles thought being stabbed in the middle of the night without his knowledge was harsh, he might have cared to remember that he had knifed Mills while the former Chief Minister was in Japan.

But Giles would not be deterred. Oh no, this proud man fought on declaring an inquiry into police failings (despite not having the power to do so) and then said this of his replacement, Van Holthe, ‘Quite frankly, I don’t think that Willem Westra van Holthe has the capacity, capability or the tenacity or the professionalism to be the chief minister.’

But he definitely had the capacity, capability, tenacity and the professionalism to be the deputy chief minister. Yes, after several hours, there was another partyroom meeting – Giles actually turned up this time – and they all decided to kiss and make up. Van Holthe bowed to Giles and everyone pretended nothing had happened. So…what can anyone who is not completely insane make of this bunch?

Willem Westra Van Holthe (and you thought it was hard to spell Palaszczuk) said at his only press conference as CLP leader that he wanted a change to avoid a Queensland-like drubbing. But surely after two premiers, one make-believe premier and multiple ministers sacked, the CLP has squandered the mandate given to them by the people in 2012? At that election, a Labor minority government which had held on for 11 years was swept away, with the CLP getting a 55.8 per cent two party preferred vote. Not an O’Farrell or a Newman mega-win but still, not bad stuff.

Now Labor will most certainly win the next election. Unless ALP members follow their state party president Matthew Gardiner and go off to fight for the Kurds in Iraq. Yes, it really happened. Yes, I know, they are all mad.

But what this saga really shines a light on is that ‘inexact science’ (in the words of Christopher Pyne) of the leadership change. While some people in Canberra continue to mutter about such a change, they should be looking very closely at their kooky cousins in Darwin.

First of all, obviously, disunity is (wait for it) death. The planning of this spill was shocking. Nearly three MPs were missing, there were attempts later on to shore up votes by bringing back two MPs who had defected to the Palmer United Party (and who very quickly quit PUP). No wonder Giles didn’t resign; there actually wasn’t much proof they had the numbers. But disunity has been a staple of this government,

Ever since Terry Mills was deposed, MPs like Alison Anderson have held their majority to ransom and Giles has had to deal with an attorney-general in Dave Tollner, who’s been in deep trouble for appearing sexist, racist, homophobic and anything else bad you can think of. Now Education Minister Robyn Lambley, the genius behind the little coup that couldn’t, has been banished. This revolving door of defectors and dumped ministers show a government not governing; they’re too busy trying to prevent multiple murders in cabinet.

There’s also that little fact that leadership changes tend to be bad news. Yes, there are obvious exceptions: Mike Baird is a mile and a half ahead of where Barry O’Farrell would have been in New South Wales. But there are too many examples of it falling flat. Think Denis Napthine, lumped with the Victorian Parliament from hell by Ted Baillieu. Think of that glorious mess in Sydney: the Iemma-Rees-Keneally-Anybody Who Wants the Damn Job Government.

And frankly, look at poor, landslide winner in the Northern Territory Terry Mills and his assassin Adam Giles. That’s working out, hey?

A change in leader usually means a rather deeper problem. It suggests a lack of purpose, even more dangerously, a lack of any unified vision. Of course, if a leader is the face of the party, you sometimes need that jolt of a facelift, and yes, it can work. However to put your government under the knife twice doesn’t suggest a need to reboot, it suggests you just hate the way you look no matter what. But if you are going to do it, kill them stone dead. No mercy can be shown; it must be planned immaculately. Giles showed authority and hope the day after he was ousted, and it guaranteed his swift return to power. Clean kills are paramount in the transition of power, otherwise the new victor is threatened from day one.

The final lesson from this sorry tale is the power of ridicule. The now no-longer-utterly-rubbish Willem Westra Van Holthe and the man he accused of being a dictator, Adam Giles, sat down for a radio interview. They professed their new love for each other, promised to work together and never fight again. They were then made to sit and listen to a satirical rap song in their honour – the gist of which was the Territory is run by a bunch of idiots. No argument there.

Adam Giles will lose to his Labor counterpart Delia Lawrie in about eighteen months. And nobody’s going to talk about granting statehood to this bunch for a while. But there is something we can learn from this sorry episode. Leadership changes have to be about something more than personalities, they have to be decisive and they have to be carried out by people who are not complete fools.