Last week I fantasised in this column about what I’d do as treasurer.

I spoke about reforms that I would confront the Australian public with.

This isn’t an easy task at all. Every treasurer, premier and prime minister must eventually realise that reform is easy to announce and almost impossible to deliver. 

The standard excuse of politicians is familiar – voters won’t accept difficult change. Australian voters, we are told, love the idea of reform in theory, but resist it in practice.

Fix the budget, sure. Improve housing affordability, absolutely. Create a sustainable economy, by all means. Just don’t touch my taxes, my superannuation, my property value or my entitlements in the process.

Voters are seen as a collection of political NIMBYs by our political class. 

It’s a neat enough story as it conveniently lets politicians off the hook and cements the status quo. But the story is also fundamentally wrong and misreads the collective Australian psyche. 

Australians have repeatedly shown that they are capable of absorbing serious pain when they understand the stakes and believe in the outcome.

Think back to the early days of Covid. Governments imposed restrictions that would have been politically unthinkable just months earlier. Borders shut, businesses closed, daily life paused.

And yet for a crucial period, most Australians went along with it. Why? Not because the policies were painless. But because the narrative was clear – protect lives now to return to normal later.

There was a shared sense of purpose. When did soldiers........

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