Jim Chalmers’ request to Treasury to model the costs of the Coalition’s proposed two-year small business lunches tax exemption is another regrettable erosion of an independent and apolitical public service. Both sides of politics are to blame for creating an environment that makes it harder for our bureaucrats to provide frank and fearless advice that is central to the Westminster system.

“I really hate it when the public service gets used in a politicised way,” says economist and former Treasury official Chris Richardson. “Both sides have done it while in government, and both should be ashamed of that.” Richardson is right to describe it as a bipartisan affliction. The last Coalition prime minister, Scott Morrison, used Treasury modelling of Bill Shorten’s tax policies to attack Labor before the 2019 election.