Labor wants to move on from the budget. Here’s why it can’t

May 31, 2026 — 5:00am

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Despite the government’s best efforts, Australians simply won’t move on from the federal budget. A fortnight out, it’s still news – online and in traditional media channels. The government has, inadvertently, created a conversation about something we had all but stopped talking about as a society: whether we are individuals who agree to act collectively, or a collective which agrees to dispense carve-outs to individuals.

It’s the conversation politicians haven’t wanted. In recent years – particularly during the Morrison and Albanese governments – both major parties have been inclined to the view that the citizenry serves the government which, in turn, dispenses favours as it sees fit. That’s now in tatters. The 2026 budget exploded what One Nation likes to refer to as the “uniparty” consensus, pushing the major parties back into their traditional ideological corners, preferring the individual – the Coalition – or the collective – Labor.

It’s also exposed the high-wire act attempted by the teals, who try to be both and end up as neither. One Nation is smug, seemingly unaware that it is seconds from exposing its own great weakness: an unresolvable policy contradiction at the heart of its platform.

The government, which rather favoured the major-party status quo, is responding with the traditional toolbox of tactics to try to move us on. In the past, it’s been able to rely on the media attention span to push inconvenient scrutiny back into the lonely corners of the........

© The Sydney Morning Herald