Chalmers can try to predict 40 years into the future, but he’s really talking 2028

September 21, 2026 — 4:11pm

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The only thing you can take to the bank for sure from Treasury’s latest attempt to predict the next four decades is that some of the forecasts will be dead wrong.

Treasury’s seventh intergenerational report is as much a political document as it’s a top-to-bottom analysis of the state of the economy.

But for a document that is supposed to look 40 years into the future, there is a notable focus on what Labor has done in its five years in office, and how the government’s most recent budget tackles issues like housing affordability, and how cuts to the NDIS will help mend the fiscal hole in the budget.

The 40-year challenges this report sets out are quite obviously framed around the solutions that the Albanese government is already rolling out and, in an amazing coincidence, those policy prescriptions are the right ones. It’s all a bit too neat.

There are hints of more announceables to come. Chalmers, in a Q&A session after the release of the document,........

© The Sydney Morning Herald