The creation of a social investment bank as envisioned in this week’s federal budget leads straight to the Treasurer’s investor roundtable, where Jim Chalmers and the bank chiefs will debate the feasibility of building a deeper “social impact investing” market in Australia.

The budget failed to provide funding for the two main recommendations made by the Social Impact Investing Taskforce, which was reconvened by the Albanese government last year: creating a “wholesaler” to direct private capital into funding social services; and an “early-stage foundation” to develop the social investing market.