The underlying tension between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers is such that people read between every line for the smallest snub.

So when Albanese implied, speaking to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) on Tuesday, that the government’s partial retreat over the Australian Taxation Office’s ban on small businesses paying tax by credit card was all his doing, observers jumped on it.

Albanese was responding to ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar, who praised the prime minister for listening and acting quickly on the problem. Albanese responded, “Andrew did text me last Thursday morning and by Friday morning we had an announcement”. He made no mention of Chalmers’ part in the turnaround, which has delayed the ban until the middle of next year.

Inevitably, on Wednesday the treasurer was asked, were you rolled by the prime minister?

Chalmers denied this, and spelled out in detail the timetable behind the switch.

He said he and Albanese had discussed the issue on Wednesday last week. “He had a view, and I agree with it, that we needed to step in to provide this longer-term transition period. […] We had the same view,” Chalmers told reporters.

He said there’d been discussions........

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