Governments must ultimately be judged by their results rather than their promises. And this week’s budget will evidence the culmination of three years of Albanese government economic and public policy mismanagement. As a telling measure of performance, Australians have, during this period, experienced the steepest decline in per capita disposable income in the developed world.

From the outset, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his treasurer, Jim Chalmers, have consistently pursued interventionist policies, disregarding conventional principles of fiscal discipline and economic prudence. The government’s policy landscape has been littered with waste, contradictions, and ballooning public debt. The government’s primary legacy has been to heighten Australia’s strategic and economic vulnerabilities amidst ongoing global uncertainty.