Peter Dutton is spruiking himself as the next John Howard by leading with his 25c a litre offer, a reminder of when Howard was up against the wall leading up to the 2001 election when he cut the fuel excise by 1.5 c a litre. He didn’t have to worry because the Tampa affair and 9/11 brought him home with a wet sail anyway.

But the irony of all this is that it was Howard as Malcolm Fraser’s treasurer who introduced the fuel excise at 3.5c a litre in 1978. He also managed to land the economic trifactor of double-digits for inflation, unemployment and interest rates.

Paul Keating introduced half-yearly indexation on fuel, which Howard later abolished. Tony Abbott however wasted no time in bringing indexation back in 2014. Scott Morrison cut the fuel excise in 2022 but in less than two months he was gone.

Dutton is clutching at straws as his side loses momentum hoping the excise template will pull a rabbit out the hat. But he may have to be a lot more creative than that to turn his fortunes around.