There's every reason to be cranky. Inflation's heading north again. Another interest rate hike is about to make life even tougher. The palpitations at the petrol pump get worse by the day.

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And, if that's not bad enough, Foodbank has revealed one third of Australian households are skipping meals because they're struggling to put food on the table.

Yet, despite all this there's an endless argument in federal parliament over a golf club grant, about which most of us couldn't care less. Sure, the PM's handling of the issue has been flat-footed - something we've grown to expect from Anthony Albanese - but it's a storm in a teacup that has absolutely no bearing on the challenges everyday Australians face.

Surely the opposition and the stenographers in the parliamentary press pack have bigger fish to fry. We certainly do out here in the real world. Where the cost of living, the rise of AI, extremism, mental health in the regions and social media harms keep us awake at night, a clumsily executed election promise does not. Nor does the sound and fury surrounding it.

For a brief moment last week, in the wake of the alleged attack on Helen Haines, parliament and its peanut gallery seemed to have grown up.

The first Question Time of the parliamentary sitting week was remarkably calm, civil, almost adult. It was a full 50 minutes before the first point of order was raised. Acid answers to opposition questions were absent. Interjections were the exception, not the rule. It wasn't great theatre but it was refreshing - even if there was no way it could last.

By Thursday, it was back to vaudeville with interjections, ejections and ludicrous stunts, including a failed bid by manager of opposition business Dan Tehan to table Hansard from the day before. In other words an attempt to put the record on the record. Time and energy wasted on the golf club grant when voters are struggling to pay the bills and worried about their kids' minds being poisoned by algorithms.

Ironically, it was when the opposition occasionally focused on the economy that the most interesting answers were forthcoming from the government. Yes, inflation was too high, the treasurer agreed but other metrics - not least its rare AAA credit rating - showed Australia was performing relatively well compared to other developed economies. Government spending as a percentage of GDP was also well down on that of our peers, as was the unemployment rate.

And here lies the reason the opposition puts so much effort into prosecuting the........

© Canberra Times