May 14, 2026 · 2 hr 3 min · 19 segments
In October 2023, Jim Chalmers told the Sydney Morning Herald about his chocolate-eating habits. He said: "I don't do moderation, in anything. I'm always going 100 miles an hour. If I eat a piece of…
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Why is this sort of a first nibble and not a feast binge or, or a watershed budget?
Yeah, there's lots of different metaphors you can use to describe what the government's tried to do.
Um, I think the reason I chose this chocolate metaphor is, um, Jim Chalmers likes to describe himself in this way.
He likes to describe himself as someone who has a really large ambition, and I think that this budget tried to do that really, um, really deliberately.
Um, the question I think is whether it's gonna be enough and whether the government has the ability to see this through to the end of the block.
And I think already as the budget has had some initial reactions, there's been pushback from some areas.
Obviously, the opposition, as we record this, is yet to deliver their budget reply speech, but will likely put up some barriers to implementing the budget in full.
And so, um, it, it's kind of a useful metaphor, I think, to understand whether Jim Chalmers will actually be able to live up the am- to the ambition that he holds himself to, and whether he'll be able to put the government and the nation at large in the direction that it needs to head.
When you say the coalition could erect some blockers, though, they don't have sort of a huge amount of leverage, right? Um, are those blockers actually able to be materialized? Like, what's the reason for the government not simply being able to push through with a Labor-Greens majority?
Yeah, I think probably running a scare campaign is what the Labor government would be most worried about in this instance.
And without getting into too much of the politics about this, there are two big barriers that I think the government's gonna face in implementing this budget agenda.
Uh, obviously, tax is the first thing that people speak about when speaking about this budget, and it's also the first thing that people talk about when talking about the to-do lists of governments to actually bring, uh, the nation into a new era of productivity and innovation and growth.
You know who the winners and losers will be of budget and tax reform, and they'll often make themselves known, and we've seen that already.
The second challenge that I think the coalition will engage with is the fact that Labor didn't bring these policies to the last election, despite having brought it to the two immediate prior elections.
... that's possibly because the people who are running policy in the Prime Minister's office are very similar to those who are involved in both of Bill Shorten's campaigns.
But I think navigating a broken promise will be particularly challenging for any government-
... uh, especially at a time when the primary vote of major parties is at all-time lows.
Why is this sort of a first nibble and not a feast binge or, or a watershed budget?
Yeah, there's lots of different metaphors you can use to describe what the government's tried to do.
Um, I think the reason I chose this chocolate metaphor is, um, Jim Chalmers likes to describe himself in this way.
He likes to describe himself as someone who has a really large ambition, and I think that this budget tried to do that really, um, really deliberately.
Um, the question I think is whether it's gonna be enough and whether the government has the ability to see this through to the end of the block.
And I think already as the budget has had some initial reactions, there's been pushback from some areas.
Obviously, the opposition, as we record this, is yet to deliver their budget reply speech, but will likely put up some barriers to implementing the budget in full.
And so, um, it, it's kind of a useful metaphor, I think, to understand whether Jim Chalmers will actually be able to live up the am- to the ambition that he holds himself to, and whether he'll be able to put the government and the nation at large in the direction that it needs to head.
When you say the coalition could erect some blockers, though, they don't have sort of a huge amount of leverage, right? Um, are those blockers actually able to be materialized? Like, what's the reason for the government not simply being able to push through with a Labor-Greens majority?
Yeah, I think probably running a scare campaign is what the Labor government would be most worried about in this instance.
And without getting into too much of the politics about this, there are two big barriers that I think the government's gonna face in implementing this budget agenda.
Uh, obviously, tax is the first thing that people speak about when speaking about this budget, and it's also the first thing that people talk about when talking about the to-do lists of governments to actually bring, uh, the nation into a new era of productivity and innovation and growth.
You know who the winners and losers will be of budget and tax reform, and they'll often make themselves known, and we've seen that already.
The second challenge that I think the coalition will engage with is the fact that Labor didn't bring these policies to the last election, despite having brought it to the two immediate prior elections.
... that's possibly because the people who are running policy in the Prime Minister's office are very similar to those who are involved in both of Bill Shorten's campaigns.
But I think navigating a broken promise will be particularly challenging for any government-
... uh, especially at a time when the primary vote of major parties is at all-time lows.
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