It was the crack of Tuesday morning when the Prime Minister and Treasurer visited a kitchen benchtops maker on the ACT border to talk about how marbleous the government's new company tax cuts will be for business owners.
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But instead of clear air to celebrate how the tax plan will supercharge the economy, journalists, irritatingly, wanted to know exactly how many jobs would be created and how much growth would be growing.
"Have you done the modelling or is it just not there?" they asked.
Frustrated with this pedantic emphasis on evidence - and Labor's similar calls for modelling - Scott Morrison told reporters to go to the pub instead.
"I tell you what, if you go down the pub and you talk to small business people, they're not talking about econometric models. What they're talking about is how they're going to grow their businesses.
"If they're a tradie ... they're looking for governments to take action."
Fairfax Media took Mr Morrison up on his offer and drove down the road from the benchtops providore to Walsh's Hotel??? in nearby Queanbeyan.
Here, at lunchtime, publican Trent Miller was pulling beers for a modest group of taxpayers in fluoro yellow vests.
As the Treasurer predicted, Mr Miller was unfussed about the lack of modelling on the plan that will see company tax reduced from 30 to 25 per cent over 10 years for companies with turnovers of up to $50 million a year.
"Anything that's going to promote employment's gotta be a good thing," he said.
"I certainly can't see it doing any harm."
Indeed, with many of his staff currently employed on a casual basis, the pub owner was upbeat at the thought of more full-time employees.
"Any tax cut will probably translate into more full-time positions."
At a nearby table, local window supplier Neil Thompson described the tax cut benefits as a "no brainer" for the economy.
"With us taking on more staff, you've got people coming off the dole too."
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen was nowhere near a bar when he stood up in Melbourne later on Tuesday to again harangue the Prime Minister and Treasurer for "flailing around, unable to name or point to the economic benefit of the tax cuts they passed".
Morrison may have passed the pub test but Labor wasn't going to drink the Kool-Aid.
