Election 2022: It’s fiscal theatre of the gritty budget realism kind

New Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Taylor

Jim Chalmers has slotted smoothly into his new role, taking cues from past custodians. An election safely behind him, the Treasurer has switched from campaign magical thinking to gritty budget realism.

It’s classic fiscal theatre, a time-honoured way to manage expectations – of the crossbench, spendthrift new ministers and, of course, the one-third of voters who gave Labor their primary vote on Saturday.

When Australians tuned in to Anthony Albanese’s campaign launch in Perth on May Day, they heard about the serial failings of Scott Morrison and a litany of promises “to do better”.

The word budget was not uttered once in a 4200-word speech. Or debt. Or deficit. Funny that, because after winning an election Labor is now talking a lot about the perilous state of the budget.

On Wednesday, after receiving briefings from officials, the Treasurer and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher fronted reporters with their game faces.

It was time to be “blunt and frank and upfront with the Australian people about the challenges we have inherited from our predecessors,” Chalmers declared.

The Treasurer explained the budget would be in worse shape than the pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook prepared by econocrats and released 10 days into the campaign.

The six-week political slugfest had an air of fiscal unreality, with both sides dropping new spending amid rising inflation and higher mortgage rates.

Yes, Morrison claimed his opponent could not be trusted with the till; Labor alleged the Coalition had racked up $1 trillion in debt with nothing to show for it.

Budget repair? Oh, that would take care of itself because both sides boasted they could grow the economy faster than the nominal interest rate and debt would stabilise.

Moving right along.

Mario Cuomo once said you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Four days in, victory’s light turns to darkness, but the world keeps spinning.

Launches are amped-up affairs for the faithful, so nobody should expect truth bombs. But the Prime Minister’s upbeat rhetoric comes from the alternative universe of elections, not the place he is flying back into on Thursday.

“Because at this election, only Labor has a plan to seize this moment for Australia,” candidate Albanese said.

“Only Labor has a plan for a better future.”

How long will “meaningful, ongoing help with the cost of living for families” last?

Are “cheaper mortgages” core or non-core?

Can we still afford “more carers with more time to care” and “a pay-rise for aged-care workers”?

On a stricter fiscal diet, will Labor still be able to look after the young, the sick, and our older Australians? “No one held back. No one left behind.”

Is “a stronger economy, with greater opportunity” now possible, including “a new commitment to higher wages and more secure work”?

“We can do better than three more years of the government that’s brought us skyrocketing costs of living, and falling real wages,” Albanese pledged at his launch. “You have earned a better future.”

Albanese had urged people to “vote for cheaper energy bills”. Now Chalmers says families should “brace for a spike in power prices”.

And hitting hard at his opponent, Albanese made a promise not to run from responsibility: “I won’t treat every crisis as a chance to blame someone else.”

Having finally been briefed about the state of the world the rest of us were living in, the Treasurer has changed his tune.

“We are inheriting a very serious set of economic and budget challenges and there is no use mincing words around that,” the Treasurer said.

It will be mince, not steak, people; neither a poet’s rhyme nor a custodian’s reason to the latest “full-blown crisis”.