Jim Chalmers’ budget has been dubbed an “extraordinary political gamble”, but maybe it’s the opposite.

While the tabloids have described it as a “madhouse budget”, and the opposition has walked straight into the trap of joining them, Chalmers is being more pragmatic than woke.

The wave of voters that swung to the right at the Farrer byelection looking for someone who would simply do something, may well feel their protest vote got an instant result in the budget, from a centre-left (ish) government.

Meanwhile, parts of the media are leaning into the broken-promises narrative. During the election campaign in 2025, the prime minister snapped at a reporter who asked him whether he could rule out changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing, saying: “Yes. How hard is it? For the 50th time.”

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, attempted to play the same card on budget night, but was called out by ABC 7:30 host Sarah Ferguson for preaching honesty while looking at his talking points.

“When you talk about honesty do you need to read that off your notes?” she asked.

She did try to pin Chalmers though, positing that breaking an election promise reflects a lack of integrity.

However, arguably, making hard decisions based on........

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