The Morrison government’s stage 3 income tax cuts – still almost two years away from their legislated implementation – are dangling by a thread as the new government’s election promise to keep them is assaulted by a barrage of calls to abandon them.

There is a strong case for the tax cuts, but the problem is that nobody is making it. If the best the government can do is to say they have to stand by an election pledge, then its commitment is likely to crumble long before July 1, 2024.