Look beyond the headlines on Chalmers’ spending and you’ll see it’s not the main game

April 17, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

Don’t be too quick to believe what the business press has been trumpeting: that government spending is out of control and that Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been going rogue with the nation’s wallet.

Equally, though, don’t go too easy on the guy.

In less than a month, Chalmers will have his chance to dress up the federal budget: a fat document (usually broken up into several booklets) laying out the government’s financial position, as well as its spending plans and forecasts for the year ahead.

The government is always pulled in two directions.

There will be – and already are – people calling for Chalmers to cut spending. Why? Well, some people believe government spending and taxation, as a general rule, should be as small as possible, allowing businesses and individuals to spend and earn more of their money in the way they think is best, “naturally” leading to the best outcome for everyone. That’s generally the view of those who believe in “free market” economics.

Then there are those who believe the government should play a bigger role in the economy, helping to fund public services such as healthcare and education, and shaping our behaviour, often with higher taxation. These people generally lean more towards “Keynesian economics”.

Most people sit somewhere in the middle.

Recently, though, a lot of people – including many economists and the business press – have been going after the government for spending too much. They argue that government spending – which has jumped from about 22.5 per cent of the size of the economy before the pandemic to nearly 28 per cent in 2025 – has been climbing too fast and worsening inflation.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver, for example, says that over the past few years, the government has spent a lot more money in areas such as healthcare. That makes sense given our ageing population: older people generally require more hospital and........

© Brisbane Times