Has the government revealed itself as a bunch of political "girly men" - to invoke an unfortunate if tongue-in-cheek phrase used by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann recently?

Using regulation rather than legislation to implement the budget measure of twice-yearly fuel tax indexation, is an admission of defeat in a political argument it should have made a much better fist of.

The calculation is clear enough: judging that the Senate numbers are not there to push through a measure which would see petrol prices rise by tiny amounts initially, the government has opted to collect the cash via regulation.