A triple ‘F’ rating for this federal budget

Looking at the body language, I also don't think they have a lot of enthusiasm for the treasurer. As they walked down the corridors of power he trailed behind Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.

I wouldn't be surprised if she fancies herself in the job. And in a government that boasts about being more than 50 percent female, why should a man hold the second most important job in the government when a man has the most important one?

(Although it is the job of a finance minister to rein in expenditure, so this is an argument based on DEI principles rather than obvious merit).

Whether the government is foolish or not, it has its money on us being fooled by all the rhetoric of changed circumstances requiring new economic strategies, and voila, here are new strategies.

(Really reheated ones from aeons ago that have been proven not to work, but in the treasurer's world everything old can be new again).

This was very much a budget with its eye on an election, possibly in March or April next year, because it hasn't left much room for a second election budget.

For this strategy to be a winner, they need interest rates to be falling, as this is the biggest factor affecting the cost of living mood, so they're also hoping they can fool the Reserve Bank into accepting that subsidising prices has a material effect on inflation.

They also need to get in before it is obvious that promising to spend money to fix something is one thing, but actually fixing it is another. We know how many houses they say they are building, for example, but that doesn't fit with the number that have actually been built.

The treasurer was right when he said we face "fraught and fragile" conditions. But if those sentiments were more than alliteration and he really believed them this was not the budget to deliver.