Chalmers isn’t a fair dinkum fiscal repairer like Keating and Walsh
It’s not unfair to look through Dr Chalmers’ two vanishing surpluses to the bigger budget picture. The Treasurer has not done enough to tackle Australia’s long-term spending problem.
Jim Chalmers deserves credit for the first back-to-back budget surpluses since Peter Costello was treasurer and for being the first Labor treasurer to achieve the milestone since Paul Keating.
It’s never easy for a Labor government to resist ministerial and backbench demands for higher spending. Dr Chalmers arguably could have run a tighter budget and limited overall spending growth to help lower inflationary pressures in the economy. But he has also displayed fiscal restraint by – so far – resisting political pressure to splurge on bigger cost-of-living relief handouts.
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