May 25, 2026 · 12 min · 10 segments
The Australian Financial Review's political editor Phillip Coorey interviews Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who’s just delivered the most significant budget in more than a decade. The government's proposed…
Jim ChalmersGuest
Phil CooreyHost
Well, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thanks for speaking to The Australian Financial Review and, uh-
Um, did you anticipate this level of hostility towards the budget that it's attracted when, when you were preparing it, when you were handing it down?
Uh, we knew that it would be contentious because it's a budget full of hard decisions, not full of handouts.
Uh, and we knew in particular that changing our position on some of these big contentious policy areas, particularly when it comes to tax reform, uh, would be, uh, something that would attract a lot of attention.
But the choice that we made at the end of the day, uh, was to, uh, change our position and do what we consider to be the right thing, even if it meant, uh, a bit of a political cost in the near term.
Would have the sell of the budget been made easier? And I, I want to go what you said the day after.
Well, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thanks for speaking to The Australian Financial Review and, uh-
Um, did you anticipate this level of hostility towards the budget that it's attracted when, when you were preparing it, when you were handing it down?
Uh, we knew that it would be contentious because it's a budget full of hard decisions, not full of handouts.
Uh, and we knew in particular that changing our position on some of these big contentious policy areas, particularly when it comes to tax reform, uh, would be, uh, something that would attract a lot of attention.
But the choice that we made at the end of the day, uh, was to, uh, change our position and do what we consider to be the right thing, even if it meant, uh, a bit of a political cost in the near term.
Would have the sell of the budget been made easier? And I, I want to go what you said the day after.
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