October 29 – November 4, 2022

“It took Liz Truss just 45 days to destroy Margaret Thatcher’s life’s work. For 40 years the idea that tax cuts for the rich would trickle down to help the poor has not just dominated the rhetoric of Western politicians but aligned the ambitions of those who already have the most and those who wish they did. Truss’s tax cuts, however, were so excessive and so poorly timed she actually forced London’s bankers to admit they were bad for the economy and the British middle class to admit they were bad for society.”

“Jim Chalmers is no stranger to the dynamics and pitfalls of federal budgets. He has worked on 16 of them in and out of government – as a staffer, adviser, shadow minister and finally, this week, at the helm himself. On Tuesday, in delivering the first Labor budget in almost a decade, he turned convention on its head. Most obviously, he presented his fiscal reckoning just five months into the government’s term and well ahead of the traditional May scheduling. The treasurer was firmly of the view he couldn’t wait another seven months to tell Australians the true state of the economy.”

“It is accepted in some circles that you can’t boil cabbage twice. Yet apparently this thinking doesn’t apply to recycling political leaders – or rehashing their worst ideas – irrespective of how hopeless they have been in government and of the damage they have done to the national interest. Two cases in point are the threatened resurgence of Donald Trump in the United States, and Boris Johnson’s soggy pitch to reclaim Britain’s prime ministership. And they have lessons for us here.”