Mr Toole was a new member of NSW Parliament when the government made the controversial decision to close the Kirkconnell Correctional Centre, costing 20 people their jobs and costing the Member for Bathurst some serious political capital.

This newspaper produced a report card on Mr Toole’s performance one year into his job in 2012, marking him highly for bringing a 24-hour fire station to the city, but marking him down for the closure of the correctional centre.

“Mr Toole was as surprised as the rest of the electorate when it was announced Kirkconnell would close,” the Advocate said at the time. “No MP can afford to be left in the dark like that, particularly from members on his own side of the parliament.”

And then a funny thing happened in the weeks leading up to the NSW election in March this year.

Faced with a rapidly increasing prison population, the NSW Government announced that it had decided to spend millions on the centre so that it could be reopened.

Mr Toole, now a promoted member of the Coalition as the Minister for Local Government, said he was pleased to see that his lobbying had paid off, though he wouldn’t be drawn on whether the decision to close the centre had been a mistake.

So where does that leave Mr Toole when it comes to Kirkconnell? 

As the member who didn’t do enough to stop it closing, the member who fought tooth and nail to ensure it would reopen, or both?

It has been a strange story from the beginning, but Mr Toole will be hoping the centre’s reopening yesterday will mark the end.