The sound of pennies dropping is deafening.

This is probably because they have such a long way to fall before landing at the feet of our political leaders.

It’s taken a while, but it seems to be dawning on the Malinauskas Government and its big Labor brother, the Albanese Government, that out here in voter land, people are struggling with the cost of living.

Gawd Aggie, the Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, even seems to be getting the message, revealing that letters he receives from people who are in distress leaves him with a “heavy heart”. If only he could suppress the nervous giggles, we might take him seriously.

In the last week, Premier Peter Malinauskas has rolled out an announcement a day in a strategy designed to show voters that the government understands that the price of buying or renting a home is running away at an alarming rate of knots.

For weeks now, political journalists in this town have been receiving emails from a person or persons unknown – calling themselves “Upset Unionist” – dropping inside information about some interesting “personality clashes” taking place behind the Botoxed public face of the Malinauskas Government.

Ms or Mr Upset Unionist does seem to have access to inside Labor Party information, including special Caucus agendas, making them a cut above the usual political spam. Premier Malinauskas should be worried, because leaks are toxic for governments.

The Upset Unionist emails this week gave journos an advance heads-up on the media events scheduled for what it dubbed “housing week”.

So, what did we get in “housing week”?

We got a cunning plan that was so slickly, obviously choreographed, so lacking in real-world timelines and detail, it was laughable.

It kicked off on Sunday with the biggie, proclaimed by the Premier as “the single largest release of residential land in the state’s history”.

The government says it will fast-track a land release to “deliver at least 23,700 more homes for South Australians”, with a start already made with the rezoning of 235 hectares at Hackham.

It says three major sites have been “identified for re-zoning for residential use” – 10,000 homes at Dry Creek, another 10,000 at Concordia, on the western fringe of the Barossa, and 1700 at Sellicks Beach.

Have you tried to get a tradie to do anything lately? Good luck with fast-tracking anything to do with bricks and mortar.

On what far-flung planet would any political party need internal party research to tell them that Australians are struggling with the cost of living?

Premier Malinauskas hasn’t just had a conversion on the road to Damascus, he’s hung a giant U-turn on the Damascene Freeway, declaring that “it has never sat well with me that urban sprawl has been denounced as a dirty word”.

He doubled down, arguing that “clogging up suburban neighbourhoods with ever more infill, without any reference to what it does to streets, what it does to neighbourhoods isn’t always good”.

“I don’t believe in urban infill at all costs,” he said.

This is breathtaking from the Premier. He’s the leader of a party that when previously in government opened the floodgates to high-rise urban infill, clogging up neighbourhoods, without any reference to what it does to streets and the people living in them, to use his own, accurate description of Labor’s dopey infill planning policies to date.

I know the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there, but the “sprawl is good” spin really takes the cake.

The announcements kept coming. The same party that sold off hundreds of Housing Trust homes will now start building them again.

A highlight of “housing week” came on Wednesday, when the Premier unveiled reforms to provide some mild and long overdue protection for renters, banning overt “rent bidding” and reducing some rental bond amounts.

But he did so in front of a large green placard with green ticks alongside the key points.

It was so naff it looked like a left-over prop from Mr Squiggle. Nobody would have been surprised to see Squiggle’s helper, Miss Jane, materialise from the shrubbery as the green board muttered “hurry, up, hurry up”.

It’s not my job to give free strategic advice to the Liberals, but why let that stop me? The Opposition should be hammering the cost-of-living issue until the government is black and blue.

Every day of “housing week”, Liberal leader David Speirs should have held a media conference in a supermarket aisle, highlighting basic food items that are fast becoming luxuries. If you can get them at all. What is it with the great Cottee’s No Sugar Raspberry Cordial shortage, anyway?

The cost of living is the only game in town. Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton gets it.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese campaigned hard on the cost of living to win government, even promising a $275 cut in everyone’s power bills. In office, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s lost that set of talking points.

Last week, Labor’s federal MPs were briefed on internal party research showing that the cost of living is “by far the main concern of voters” and they risked an electoral backlash if they didn’t focus on it.

The Financial Review’s Phillip Coorey, a Peterborough boy made good, reported that the ALP National Secretary Paul Erickson delivered a blunt message to caucus on February 7, the same day the Reserve Bank lifted interest rates for the ninth time in a row, making them the highest in a decade.

“You must look like you are responding to this first and foremost,” he was quoted as telling MPs, senators and ministers, Coorey reported.

“This is where people are at, and you need to be aware of it. This is where people expect you to be.”

On what far-flung planet would any political party need internal party research to tell them that Australians are struggling with the cost of living?

If you follow US President Joe Biden on Twitter, he’s constantly tweeting about measures he’s pushing to provide practical, dollar relief to working-class and middle-income families, in many big and small ways.

His Twitter feed is peppered with messages about practical attempts to help Americans, from the Junk Fee Prevention Act to stop companies ripping off consumers with petty fees, like charging families extra to sit together on an aircraft – “they shouldn’t be able to treat your kid like a piece of luggage” – to cheaper insulin and affordable, over-the-counter hearing aids.

James Carville, a political strategist to former US President Bill Clinton, is credited with first coining the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid”, one that became a central background theme of the successful Clinton campaign.

On the weekend, the PM announced he’ll be the first sitting Prime Minister to “not only watch the march on Mardi Gras, but to take part in it”.

Marching in the Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras is a powerful symbol for a Prime Minister.

But marching up and down the supermarket aisles, talking to working families trying to somehow pay the mortgage or rent, while feeding, clothing and educating their kids, would send a powerful message too. Phil Lowe might like to give it a whirl too.

Westpac’s latest monthly consumer survey shows consumer sentiment has dropped into “deep pessimism”. We don’t need a bank to tell us that.

It’s the economy, stupid.

In Strugglesville, counting pennies, not strolling in the Mardis Gras, is at the top of most people’s shopping list.

Matthew Abraham’s weekly analysis of local politics is published on Fridays.

Matthew can be found on Twitter as @kevcorduroy. It’s a long story.