What it's really like to work in the Prime Minister's office during a spill.

Australia’s Minister for Women is getting sacked tonight.

Oh wait yes and Australia’s Prime Minister.

When a Prime Minister is knifed in the night – eaten by his own – there is a feeling in the air at Parliament House and it is called revenge.

It is deathly silent in the halls of the Prime Minister’s blue corridor but the walls are alive with political powered electricity.

Inside the Prime Minister’s fairly humble office he will sit at his large desk desperately trying to accumulate the numbers to save his job.

Only his most loyal and senior staff will be with him. Perhaps if he is lucky enough, a few MPs will be with him that are going to vote for him. The truth is though none of them be the real power brokers or the senior members of cabinet. They are all hanging with the other guy. His challenger.

He anxiously asks his loyal staff member whether he has gotten that “call back yet from Arthur?”

“No not yet PM,” they say… wincing because they know they will not be calling him that name for much longer.

Everyone in the ministerial corridors is bunkered down in full siege mentality.

Those that work for the PM know their jobs are gone. They start thinking about the next rent payment and who their first phone call will be to after the ballot to try and get a job. Some will start packing up their desks because they know it is over.

Those Government parliamentarians scorned by the sitting Prime Minister will be jovial. They have been waiting for this moment and they will be boasting privately about how pivotal the role was they had to play. The staffers that work for them will be busy working out their next career move post the ballot.

Opposition MPs and their staff kick back and relax with a drink and create funny memes to share with each other. A leadership spill is always a luxury to enjoy when it is not happening to you.

When the “spill is on” staffers and MPs alike dig for that bottle of wine they were gifted at a recent function to crack open while they watch SKY and Twitter and witness the human catastrophe unfold.

It is not pretty. These situations do not bring out the best in people.

The PM will likely retreat into his small bathroom and private dressing area that adjoins his office. It has a connecting door with his Chief of Staff’s office.

It is a place to have the most private of conversations. There is no video surveillance in there. It is a place to hide from the world and the horrible situation that now must finally be faced.

It is a place to shed the tears, to rip out your hair, or punch a wall.

From inside the Prime Minister’s bathroom no one can hear you scream.

As the final minutes pass until the ballot that decides his future, it will be agony for the Prime Minister and his closest staff.

Spare a thought for them, no matter what you may think of their polices.

You can find our rolling coverage on tonight’s events here.