As the world plunges into historic turmoil, Australia’s election debate fusses over minor tax tweaks

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton ‘have sounded strangely similar, reciting lines about standing up for Australian interests but also dealing productively with the Trump administration, while insisting the other guy would be hopeless’. Composite: Guardian design

In the current torrent of international news, it can seem as though Australians are living on a different planet.

We read stories about how Europeans are being advised to pack a 72-hour survival pack because of the increasing threat of war, or that the US is contemplating the clearly illegal idea of routinely deporting its own citizens to be incarcerated in El Salvador. Trillions have been wiped off stock markets by tariffs that make no sense. It’s an overwhelming stream of historic end-of-the-global-order-as-we-knew-it kind of news.