Often they stumble in their eagerness to escape, landing in even more hot water. The danger: they lurch from one crisis to another.

Daniel Andrews' botched handling of the sky rail issue is a case in point. For the past few weeks Labor has been under enormous pressure to resolve the V/Line debacle. One-quarter of the state's regional trains – many servicing marginal electorates – have been taken off the tracks and replaced with buses because of problems with wheel wear and failed boom gate closures. It was a political disaster for which there would be no quick fix.

The government would of course deny it, but team Andrews would have certainly seen the sky rail announcement as offering temporary sanctuary, if not salvation.

The announcement would give Labor an opportunity to shift the debate and demonstrate it was getting on with the job of making Melbourne more liveable. And who could resist a glossy brochure with "artist's impressions" showing modern transport utopia full of happy families?

The government called it a "state of the art consultation process". According to Andrews, the talk-fest began way back in April last year, with more than 1500 pieces of feedback received.

But this is gilding the lily. In politics, there are really two types of "consultation": asking people what they would like; and telling them what you are going to give them, by which point it is too late.

According to angry locals – many of them Labor voters – the first they learned about the plan was when they read about it in a newspaper report which first appeared on Saturday night.

As the Level Crossing Removal Authority's chief executive, Kevin Devlin, revealed, about 500 homes were door-knocked on Saturday night, just hours before the plan was made public. Several protesters said they were not informed at all.

You can only conclude that the last minute scramble to inform people happened because Labor wanted to control the media agenda and maximise the impact of its announcement to regain control of the political agenda. In doing so, it alienated residents in three of its safe electorates along the line: Oakleigh, Clarinda and Keysborough.

The result is that the government is now being forced to weather a barrage of criticism from furious locals who believe the government's consultation process has been a sham from the start. And none of this has anything to do with the merits of the actual plan.

The issue has parallels with the former Brumby government's handling of the regional rail link just months before the 2010 election. In that case, shocked Footscray residents were told by journalists their homes were going to be bulldozed. It was a public relations disaster, with many people waiting 24 hours for an official notification.

Now Andrews is facing a similar issue that is unlikely to vanish any time soon. Now where was that other announcement?