This is where things could get really nasty. The accusations and recriminations have now turned public, like an ugly family brawl that has spilled onto the street. Right now it's pretty hard to see how it might be pushed back inside the house.

A brief recap. On Tuesday morning, team Andrews awoke to a leak designed to inflict maximum damage at the start of a parliamentary sitting week.

This time, it was an internal memo from Andrews' industrial relations adviser John-Paul Blandthorn, written about a year ago, suggesting the notoriously tempestuous UFU boss Peter Marshall should be asked to be more respectful of ministers, MPs and their staff.

The inference was that Andrews had misled Parliament, having previously said he had not received any internal complaints about Marshall's behaviour, including allegations the unionist made threatening comments suggesting 3000 firefighters were coming to bury axes in the heads of Jane Garrett and the Premier.

That, to make matters worse, came fresh on the heels of off-the-record claims from Labor sources that Mr Andrews had made an obscene remark about a Liberal MP battling bowel cancer, forcing a public denial.

To state the obvious, the Premier is desperate to get things back on track. On Tuesday morning he announced a permanent ban on fracking. It should have been the story of the day, given the anger in rural communities about the issue.

But once again, Andrews was thwarted, bogged axle-deep by his internal woes. At a caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, according to several Labor sources, Garrett was named as the leaker, and told to play for the team or get out.

The accusation appeared to be based on a text message from Garrett's electoral officer - intended for a journalist - that was allegedly wrongly sent to a Labor staffer with same name.

If you think this is murky, just wait. By late afternoon Garrett had put together a carefully worded statement denying her staffer had contacted the journalist on Monday - although she did not directly respond to the broader allegation that she was the source of the leak.

Worse for Andrews, Garrett is now putting together a formal complaint about the treatment she received when she was a minister.

Andrews, who has handled previous internal complaints forcefully (just ask Adem Somyurek) will have little choice but to respond, unless he wants to look like a hypocrite.

After all, it was Andrews (as Garrett points out) who recently said people should avail themselves of "avenues of complaint" if they feel they have suffered mistreatment. That comment in turn followed the allegation that Marshall made the axe threat.

Bottom line? Garrett isn't going anywhere. On the contrary, she has escalated the situation to a considerable degree. It's only going to get worse.