My question to Jim Chalmers wasn’t ‘hard hitting’. Here’s why I asked it

May 17, 2026 — 5:01am

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On Tuesday night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered what will probably go down in history being remembered as the “not-just-another-budget” federal budget.

With major policy announcements having an impact on home ownership, investing, disability insurance, small businesses and so many other fields, there’s no doubt in my mind that this will be something we’ll be talking about for a long time to come.

Much like the budget itself, there were also many opinions about the Albanese government inviting people like me – that is, people in media who aren’t necessarily trained journalists – to attend the budget lock-up in Canberra last year, and again this week.

Though a lot of the people grouped into this cohort use different titles to describe what it is we do – independent media, new media, content creators, influencers, podcasters – for the interest of simplicity, I’m going to refer to us all as new media.

When I and a handful of others were invited to the budget for the first time last year, I could understand why some saw the move as an election-year stunt and felt Labor simply wanted to try to use us for our substantial online followings to score brownie points with young voters.

While I can’t speak to what its goal was in inviting me along, I do know what my reasons for attending were. Firstly, as someone passionate about improving financial literacy, especially among women, I have always studied budgets, even if I wasn’t in the same room as everybody else.

Those kinds of questions are absolutely the reason some of the nation’s top journalists are in the room, but it was not why I was.

Secondly, when you are granted access to the lock-up, it’s not just a sneak peek of the budget a few hours before the rest of the country........

© The Age