The treasurer has rewritten the narrative on federal budgets. On Tuesday night, we’ll get to decide whether we believe his story – or at least want to believe it.
Not every story a politician tells is a lie. But the way they tell their stories can conceal or skew reality in convenient ways.
Chalmers-as-storyteller has done things differently from the treasurers before him. Two things stand out: that strange little October budget shortly after the Albanese government was elected and the essay the treasurer published inChalmers’ October mini-budget perplexed political observers at the time. His predecessor Josh Frydenberg had delivered a budget only a little bit earlier than the regular May time, at the end of March 2022. Nothing had changed significantly.
Then, in the regular scheduled May budget the following year, the money from those slush funds was allocated to the Albanese government’s priorities. And because of the time the money had spent in limbo, it seemed sort of fresh and new; some might even say laundered. But it didn’t “cost” the budget any extra.
But back to the narrative, as Chalmers will deliver it on Tuesday night. As I mentioned, we’re getting to the part of the story where the treasurer reveals how the episodes we’ve seen to date come together. There’s no secret about this, because Chalmers has never hidden that he wants to be the Labor treasurer who steals the mantle of “better economic managers” from the Coalition – what in polling jargon is called the “electoral equity”.
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