As the US election transfixes the world and viral videos about eating cats and dogs flood the internet, there was just one question asked of Kamala Harris that she deftly avoided directly addressing on debate night that will be the number one question asked of Anthony Albanese in our own upcoming election. I’d go as far as to predict it will be the first question of our own leaders’ debate.

It is the penultimate question to all incumbents in a cost-of-living crisis and it carries immense danger. Unlike Donald Trump, Peter Dutton has the capacity to repeat and stay on message — he is the ultimate custodian of the well-known political vomit principle: repeat, repeat, repeat until whatever you are saying is embedded in voters’ memories.

The question to Harris ended like this: “Your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago? When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?'”

That’s the key question Dutton wants to amplify, and if you were listening very carefully this week you could hear in the bearpit of parliamentary Question Time the formation of that answer.

In Question Time Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor asked: “Will the treasurer.