The Albanese government’s fourth budget is a pitch for the votes of a sour and alienated electorate, framed against a background of extraordinary international uncertainty.

US President Donald Trump isn’t mentioned by name, but he is the colossus in the background of this budget and indeed the imminent election campaign.

While the opinion polls and the public mood have been turning marginally in Labor’s direction in recent weeks, voters still feel (and are) financially under the pump.

Interest rates have fallen slightly and inflation has declined, but public sentiment is still in a relatively dark place.

The government has been desperately trying to lift it for months.

It started behind the eight ball. It had let people’s anger about rising living costs get away from it, even as a per capita recession (from which we’ve just emerged) baked itself in. Why? Largely because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was over-occupied with the Voice referendum.

Battling to catch up, a plethora of announcements have come in recent months and weeks that have been sold as responses to the cost-of-living crisis – evidence that the government understands and cares.

They have been concentrated in Labor’s core areas of health and education, with initiatives to boost........

© InDaily