Australian politics is given to distraction, and on the day of the Opposition reply to the Budget the Coalition is distracted by the report of Peter Costello making a comeback.
But listening to Tony Abbott, Christopher Pyne, Andrew Robb or Joe Hockey over the past 24 hours, you might wonder if the Costello story had been delivered to the media by Liberal HQ in order to divert us. The performance of Opposition economic spokespeople has been underwhelming, to say the least.
If the Coalition has a clear explanation of why it supports the new family payments but not the Schoolkids Bonus, then we're yet to hear it. We're yet to hear how it can support the family payments without the revenue from the mining tax; or the income tax reductions without the carbon tax; or how the Schoolkids Bonus is any different from the Baby Bonus; or why it opposed company tax cuts in the first place.
Put simply, we're yet to hear any economic plans from the Coalition, and that looks set to continue for a while yet.