In a dramatic departure from normal practice, Mr Crisis and Ms Opportunity have arrived arm-in-arm at the Australian front door. Usually – remember the pandemic – Mr Crisis arrives unexpectedly and noisily and leaves Ms Opportunity sitting in the car drawing up lists of transformative things that might be done.

The enormity of this moment, when the Australian people have acknowledged the crises but signalled they want decisive action – by electing a stable majority government that no longer needs to jump at a Murdoch-shaped shadow – should not be underestimated.

This crisis is global thanks to climate change, a capricious rule-bending American president, a concentration of wealth almost without precedent and digital colonisation. And it is local. It affects the quality of life and safety, economic diversity and robustness, intergenerational equity and the foundational flaw of failing to meaningfully recognise the First Peoples.

Ms Opportunity has lots of ideas about how these crises might be addressed in a way that endures for decades, reshapes the economy, strengthens social relations and even, when she is feeling particularly ambitious, sets an example for the rest of the world.

It has been done before – when Mr Crisis was big enough and his ambition unchecked. Solving it used to be called

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