LET'S cut to the chase for all those ministers and their mates fretting that they can't ever have a beer again or compliment a lady.
Hong Kong barfly Jamie Briggs's ministerial career self immolated because he breached ministerial standards.
He did not go down simply for having a beer or giving a woman a kiss on the cheek. 
As cases of political -judgment go, the subsequent decision of his "friends" to leak a photograph of the woman who lodged a confidential complaint about his behaviour is an absolutely doozy.
Last week Briggs said he didn't want to name the woman because he was protecting her privacy. Today, we learn a photograph of the woman that ended up on the front page of a newspaper was taken on his mobile.
That's right, the former minister sent around the uncensored picture of the confidential complainant to some colleagues and somehow it ended up in the media (with her face pixelated). Oops. Wow. And yet some continue to assert Briggs was forced to resign in a "silly and unfair move".
The fact that a twenty-something public servant posed for a selfie with Briggs's chief of staff in the bar after -midnight while delivering a peace sign doesn't really cut it as a defence.
Briggs was representing Australia in Hong Kong, while enjoying what Cabinet colleagues report was a hefty serve of alcohol. But the ministerial code of conduct notes that even conduct in a private -capacity must "demonstrate appropriately high standards of personal integrity". He failed the test and resigned, regardless of the rearguard action now being mounted to assert his -actions were a trifling matter.
Briggs met the young public servant one afternoon in Hong Kong and within hours had -invited her to dinner with his chief of staff and on to a bar until 2am. That night, he kissed her on the cheek according to him, or on the neck according to her testimony in a Cabinet-in-confidence report.
There is a difference between a peck on the cheek and a kiss on the neck from your boss. Perhaps, he tripped and fell. It was, Briggs told us, "a very crowded bar".
While she was standing in the bar, she complained to chief of staff Stuart Eaton that Briggs was standing too close.
In the days that followed she privately raised concerns about Briggs's behaviour. No prizes for guessing why she was reluctant to make a formal complaint. She probably didn't want her name dragged through the mud.
The Cabinet governance committee that ruled on the matter was "deeply troubled", according to some reports.
Well, not all of them. The majority of his Cabinet colleagues were appalled and dismayed by Briggs's conduct. The ultimate decision was unanimous. Let me spell it out.
Briggs got the boot because his alcohol intake left him running the risk of behaving like Les Patterson when representing Australia abroad.
He had a chief of staff, Eaton, who managed to lose his taxpayer-funded -mobile phone on a Hong Kong bar crawl. That's pretty loose.
And when confronted by a young woman who said Briggs was invading her space, Eaton elected not to tell Briggs to get into a cab but tell the female to stand closer to him, not the minister. The next morning, the minister breakfasted on McDonald's nursing a hangover and whinged on Facebook: "Bag-less in Honkers, thanks Qantas."Yes, minister. The official charge may have been conduct unbecoming. It was also about being as dumb as all get out.