The Reserve Bank of Australia is truly screwed. It has once again been humiliated by a predictably protracted, and now re-accelerating, inflation crisis that it refuses to tackle for fear of upsetting its political masters, who control negotiations over the future of monetary policy setting.

The RBA’s failure to follow the precedents set by its key global peers, including Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, by lifting its cash rate to 5.0-5.5 per cent, has meant that Australians now face the spectre of yet another cycle of interest rate increases.