December seems to rattle prime ministers. Scott Morrison achieved a sort of gormless immortality when he declared on December 20, 2019, “I don’t hold a hose” to explain why he was MIA in Hawaii as the Black Summer bushfires raged back home.

Just short of six years later, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had his own Morrison moment on Thursday.

He was hoping to bathe in the glory of his government’s under-16 social media ban, but instead has been forced to field questions on the growing scandal surrounding MPs’ expenses. One query clearly got under his collar. He was asked by reporters about parliament’s power to change rules governing politicians’ expenses that had been legislated by the previous Coalition government, and he snapped: “I haven’t changed the rules … I’m not the finance minister.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for........

© The Sydney Morning Herald