Feelings of ennui are common in Canberra but the sense of suspended animation this week was more palpable than usual.

It had nothing to do with the ACT government’s snap seven-day COVID-19 lockdown that has silenced an already sleepy town. And it was only tangentially related to the federal government’s threadbare legislative agenda. Parliamentarians could easily have skipped this week’s session. Few would have noticed or cared a jot.