Budgets are built on forecasts. But whatever Chalmers predicts, it keeps getting worse

Updated April 20, 2026 — 3:58pm,first published 11:40am

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Jim Chalmers’ fifth budget was always going to be one of the most important fiscal blueprints this century.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s emphatic 2025 re-election gave Labor the opportunity to realise long-delayed economic reforms, ranging from the tax system to a Ponzi scheme-adjacent housing market, means this year’s budget has to contain a mix of difficult reforms and savings.

But the war launched by the United States and Israel on Iran at the end of February, and the enormous economic tremor it has sent through the world, has taken the May 12 budget to the highest degree of difficulty.

A visibly tired Chalmers, who made a dash to Washington last week for a series of key International Monetary Fund meetings, on Monday morning gave the clearest indication so far of how the war is upending the plans that he, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Albanese had been shaping for this year’s budget.

His extended press conference, which warmed up by admitting the economic outlook is grim and got bleaker from there,........

© Brisbane Times