Back in 2022 when Labor won the federal election with a paltry 32 per cent of the primary vote, our columnist Judith Sloan warned us all to ‘assume the brace position’. She couldn’t have been more prescient. This week Australia, under the grinning bonhomie of Treasurer Jim Chalmers, abandoned all claims to sound economic stewardship with a spendthrift, lazy and irresponsible Budget, where hypocrisy and counter-productive measures are the order of the day,

At the same time as the Reserve Bank is warning about inflation, and that interest rates may yet have to rise again, Labor decides to pour petrol literally...