The annual tabling of the budget and the budget reply may have been presented as a dusty ritual but the secret to understanding how it has landed is to recognise that the world is changing, perhaps irrevocably.

We are in a new asymmetric political contest in which a dominant party is imposing its agenda on a fragmented polity as a wounded opposition staves off a rising populist wave and a growing band of independents look to formalise their own coalition.

To the extent the government has taken a post-budget hit, it has mainly been from propagating incendiary memes that place virality over veracity.

The less-than-rave reviews in the broader sentiment reflect both the sugar hit success of this guerrilla campaign and a general malaise in a time of rolling economic crises way beyond the government’s control.

Step back from the noise and the tune becomes clearer: Labor is exercising the power of the historic mandate secured a year ago by expending political capital to unwind the pro-wealth settings that were the enduring legacy of the Howard era.

To do so successfully it needs to win three strategic contests: get past the promise it has broken, demonstrate a real impact on the material wellbeing of young people and tap into a broader collective economic consciousness.

This week’s Guardian Essential Report does not purport to predict how these three parallel battles will conclude but it is illuminating in setting the lines of engagement.

On the issue of “changing one’s position” it seems that, for many, the breaking of election commitments is now baked into the system as acceptable, provided there is a compelling justification.

Labor in power has been careful in the promises it has broken. In the first term it walked back its commitment to the........

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