Labor's first budget for "hard times" is out and is being sold by the government. And, with a sense of inevitability, it is being smashed by an opposition zeroing in on the cost of living.
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It is also being smashed by inflation.
"Blunt over the polished" is how Treasurer Jim Chalmers likes to dish the current news. This from the guy who did his PHD analysis on the prime ministership of Paul Keating.
So when the budget shows a pre-election, pre-Ukraine war promise to lower the average power bill by $275 by 2025 looks set to be replaced by the reality of a 56 per cent rise over two years, Dr Chalmers opts for optimism over pessimism. Even when presented with a potential broken promise.
"Whether it's food, whether it's electricity, whether it's rent, inflation is public enemy number one," he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the Treasurer does not have much in his arsenal challenge as a cash splash would make the "inflation challenge more profound and more prolonged and ultimately more painful for people."
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The opposition knows it and uses it as an attack line. What Labor calls restraint, the opposition calls out as giving nothing back.
"It was bread and butter. Big spending, big taxing, traditional Labor budget that delivers everything to government and nothing to the Australian people," the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor told Parliament.
A rejuvenated Coalition finds its groove, despite - as it does not need to yet in the electoral cycle - offering no alternative and tip-toeing over its past cash offerings and market interventions.
Yet the refrain from opposition benches is, "no credible plan."
Dr Chalmers admits to temptation to spend the way out.
"There's never any shortage of worthy and well meaning offers or ideas on where we might spend more money. And that temptation becomes a lot stronger when you see people hurting. As a Labor government as Labor people we feel that we care about that. It keeps us awake," he told the National Press Club.
The government is "strongly considering" an intervention in the energy market, possible before the end of the year, but Dr Chalmers won't "nominate a preferred path" just yet.
The official figures on Wednesday caught up with the pinch Australians are all feeling.
Inflation hit a 32-year high in the September quarter, with the consumer price index rising 7.3 per cent for the year.
How can wages possibly catch up with that? The Treasurer said the rise was broadly expected and still stands by Treasury's forecast inflation peak of 7.75 per cent next quarter.
There are some tough economic forecasts for two to three years away, just around the time the polls come around again.
The lines are being drawn over the price of keeping the lights on. Expect power to be the play in Peter Dutton's traditional budget reply.
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