By: Katie Bradford-Crozier | Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:45 AM

When National's caucus sat down yesterday morning, the message from the Prime Minister must have been clear - let's get some good news out there.

So for the second time in a week National performed a u-turn on a controversial and serious issue.

Nearly ten years, $1 million, numerous court hearings, and a whole lot of heartache later the Government's admitted it's been fighting a war it can't win and has agreed people who care for disabled family members deserve to be paid for doing so.

It's a good news story no matter how you look at it, and one National needed after months of bad news.

But it came on a day when the announcements poured in, Government decisions that on any other day would lead a news bulletin, and for that reason the media can't help but be cynical about the timing.

The stories ranged from the rollout of pepper spray in all prisons to an increase in fuel tax - and of course the news ACC chairman John Judge is a goner.

There's no doubt he had to go.

The claim by the Government that the timing was unfortunate and just a coincidence, is frankly just too hard to swallow. Whether Judge was pushed or had just had enough, the fact remains he didn't do enough to monitor just what was going on at what has now been revealed as an incompetent organisation.

And Judith Collins all but admitted that in saying Judge had done a good job in managing the finances of ACC, but it's time for a new culture and a new era.

The issue will continue to hang over the heads of both Ms Collins and John Key as long as the revelations continue and questions remain unanswered. They will be hoping the two inquiries into the Bronwyn Pullar saga and privacy breaches are wrapped up quickly so they can leave this scandal behind.

But it was of course ironic that the day the Government was trying to be the bearer of good news that the expensive speaker system in parliament decided they'd have enough - leaving Speaker Lockwood Smith eventually holding four non-working microphones and some MPs embarrassed as their usually muttered conversations were picked up by the faulty microphones.