Ever keen to show voters that it is doing everything it can to reduce the cost of living, the Albanese government is moving to ban surcharges on debit card payments.

From a political point of view, surcharges are a well-chosen target. They are a small but highly visible daily irritant. Customers at, say, a Sydney CBD coffee shop are hit with a charge, typically around 1.2 per cent, to recover the $80,000 cost of the retailer’s payment connection.