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.