Patricia Karvelas

That's really hard.

Now, the Treasurer said in the lead-up to the budget that it's very hard to promise things in an election because of dis- and misinformation.

Look, he's right.

It doesn't mean, though, that you shouldn't be honest.

Also, it doesn't mean that this won't happen now.

It's also, the Treasurer claims, one of the pillars of this budget.

But

Well, I can't see what's happening here.

And it's not a good story for the government, is it?

So there's lots of other parts of the budget which we will be poring over over the next few days.

Your podcast, my podcast.

I mean, these are just the big ticket items, to be clear.

A budget is huge, my friends.

I mean, there are so many areas where people are specifically affected.

And so don't think that, you know, poring over all of this is over.

I do think, though, that broadly this is going to be a really difficult political sell, even though it deals with, you know, the headline issue of intergenerational fairness, which has become very popular, very much in the zeitgeist.

But I see this as the kind of budget you deliver when you know populism is on the rise, where you want to say, hey, we're willing to smash it.

You want more change.

We've heard you.

We haven't given you enough change.