Calls to cut the federal fuel excise to ease the cost of living hit from higher world oil prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underline what’s wrong with Australia’s puerile political debate. Such calls perhaps could be expected from a Liberal state premier, Steven Marshall, facing defeat at Saturday’s South Australian election.

But it is disappointing to hear them from a NSW Liberal premier, Dominic Perrottet, who is supposed to be leading the national tax reform push. And it is predictably depressing to witness Labor and the Greens hedge their bets, waiting to sniff where the political advantage lies for them.