Analysis

‘Like bears to a honey-pot’: how the Future Fund got political

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ planned changes to the nation’s $230 billion savings account might be unfinished business for Labor.

Tom McIlroyCanberra Bureau Chief

Nov 21, 2024 – 5.26pm

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When Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan proposed tapping into the Future Fund to pay for the national broadband network in 2007, Peter Costello accused the pair of stealing from the future.

“The first burglary is the hard one,” the then treasurer warned. “Once you have done the first burglary, the second and the third and the fourth get much easier.”

Tom McIlroy is the Financial Review’s Canberra bureau chief based in the press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously the AFR’s political correspondent.