By his own assessment, Jim Chalmers’ fifth federal budget is the most important and most ambitious from an Australian government in decades.

Buffeted by the global energy shock, the treasurer describes Tuesday night’s spending package as five budgets in one.

The plan, he says, improves resilience against international shocks; helps with cost-of-living pressures; delivers badly overdue tax reform; boosts productivity and gets right the balance between savings and new spending.

But – for all its virtue – Labor’s moves to rebalance the country’s intergenerational compact might take too long for young Australians locked out of the housing market. Worse, efforts to ride the waves of disruption emanating from the war in Iran could easily come unstuck if Donald Trump makes the crisis worse, a scenario that sees unemployment rising and inflation approaching Covid-era levels – potentially taking the........

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