Taxation zombies and climate change vampires are among the scary policies the nation's politicians are grappling with this Halloween.
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At Halloween people around the world seek out the things that scare them, decorating houses with skeletons, ghouls and spiders and parading the streets dressed as zombies and vampires.
What should our politicians seek out as their biggest fears? Which policies drape Parliament House like fake cobwebs this All Hallows Eve?
How about (cue spooky moans) the ultimate zombie measure that will not die: the GST?
There's nothing quite like the suggestion that governments should raise taxes - as more money is needed to fund essential services or that mountainous backlog of infrastructure maintenance - to send a politician run screaming.
When Scott Morrison was treasurer he led months of speculation about a GST increase through Malcolm Turnbull's "everything on the table" tax review.
John Howard has said several times over the years the GST cannot be left indefinitely in the form he introduced it two decades ago.
A survey at the time found while Australians generally weren't keen on the idea of the tax increasing, they were resigned to it happening.
But it didn't.
The idea rises from the grave periodically, such as this week when Liberal senator Dean Smith suggested either broadening the range of goods and services the tax applied to or lifting its rate from 10 to 12.5 per cent, in exchange for the states scrapping payroll taxes.
A week earlier, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet was the one suggesting GST increases, this time in exchange for states dumping stamp duties.
Morrison was quick to decapitate the undead idea.
"We're not doing it," the prime minister replied sharply to a question.
Labor MP Josh Burns described the GST as "a ruthless, efficient tax".
Terrifying!
After the $387 billion tax scare campaign the coalition ran against Labor in the election, and continue to run during question times, neither side is game to even consider it.
But Morrison has the political capital should he wish to expend it.
His government is viewed as a first-term administration despite the coalition being in power since 2013, he is the election's "miracle" victor, and he is good at coming up with cut-through ways of explaining the need for changes.
Veteran Liberal Arthur Sinodinos was Howard's chief of staff through the four years, including an election, that it took to get the GST passed and sticking.
He cites that experience when saying he believes Morrison is a great persuader who will be able to advocate for and achieve big things.
Another nightmare that scares the pants off the nation's politicians is climate change.
Not scared in the "world is doomed" kind of way (excepting the Greens) - more that the need to come up with a way to address climate change has been like a vampire sucking the lifeblood out of leaders.
Recent political history is littered with their bodies: Kevin "Moral Imperative" Rudd, Turnbull Mk I, Julia "No Carbon Tax" Gillard, Turnbull Mk II, Bill "Cost Of Climate Change" Shorten.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese faced this fear in his first major policy speech on Tuesday.
Renewables are great and so are some kinds of coal, he declared.
Think of the jobs - so many jobs! - and not the frightening prospect that the coal mine or coal-fired power station where you work will inevitably close.
It will take much more than one speech - and Labor needs to decide what its climate policy actually is - but for now Albanese hopes dressing up the spectre of change in a bright job-creating costume will ease the fears of the working-class voters Labor unexpectedly lost support from at the election.
The government too is feeling the need to reassure voters on the climate front - albeit from the direction of needing to show it is attacking the global warming monster.
It moved to pour an extra $1 billion into the publicly-funded green bank to invest in pumped hydro, batteries and gas energy projects.
That came days after Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the government wouldn't be taking advice from energy company bosses like the Origin Energy head who was getting around last week calling for - guess what - more incentives to invest in pumped hydro, batteries and gas.
Spooky how fast minds can change.
