It is the most ambitious FederalBudgetthe nation has seen for a couple of decadesand the strain of committing to action showed on the faces of Labors front bench last night.

As TreasurerJim Chalmersdelivered a low-keyyet powerfulvisionand revision of Australias financial future, Finance MinisterKaty Gallagherlooked anxious, while others just nodded profusely, and Prime Minister Albanese would have radiated a sunny smile if his frown wereturned ... well, you know.

And well might they worry. AsSarah Fergusonsaid on ABC7.30in her 8 pm interview with the Treasurer, Labor has flagrantly and openly broken several election commitments in this Budget. One earlier election promise, after all over the carbon taxbrought downPMJulia Gillard, even though she never even brought in an actual carbon tax.

Chalmers, playing around with the negative gearing and capital gains tax rorts exploited mostly by baby boomers, is playing with the same sort of fire that ledBill Shortentolosethe so-called "unlosable" election. And that was merely by plugging a small tax rort that hardly anyone had even heard of: the dreaded dividend imputation.

And Jim Chalmers wasnt even denying it, telling Ferguson, essentially, that the facts had changed so the Government had changed its mind. It was very Keynesian. It was inspiring. It was brave. One feels it was very much Chalmers Budget and not many others although Health Minister Butler appeared happy, as well he might be, with around$36 billionpushed into his portfolio (via hospital, Medicare and cheaper medicines).

If it all comes off and the economy stays strong, Dr Jim from Brissie will probably become prime minister not too long after the next election. If it doesnt, his career might be in tatters.

Its edge-of-your-seat stuff for aParty that has reduced the small target strategy into the realms of the microscopic. Daring is not grumpy Albos forte. But Dr Jim Chalmers is a different sort of leader. There is a whiff of Keating about him, a hint of Gough, but without the acidity or hauteur.

Chief of staff to TreasurerWayne Swanand executive director of theChifley Research Centrein a previous life, 48-year-old, non-boomer Chalmers is still a man of the people. He showedquiet confidence in his well-reasoned address that these changes are good changes and that they should work. Only the malign, Murdoch-led, biased mainstream media, running successful scare campaigns and even more ill global economic fortunes than the Budget "uncertainty" envisaged, could foil Australias financial future and the nations new de facto leader.

And so, try though she did to focus on broken promises, which Ferguson described as blindingly obvious, Chalmersremainedsteadfast and calm:

The key changes are centred on reform of capital gains, negative gearing and discretionary trusts, all of which have largely contributed to rising inequality over many years.Each of these areas has been protected by conservative governments and media fear-mongering, such that Labor governments have avoided any contact, lest the invisible hex they carried that led to the fall of the Rudd/Gillard governments and kept the ALP out of office for three terms should re-emerge.

Even theAlbanese Government promised it would not change those structures last time around, as Ferguson was so fond of mentioning.

Australias housing crisis isnt just a clash between generations, but a deepening class divide hidden beneath the rhetoric of the fair crack.

However, a key point about the timing of these changes is, as Chalmers pointed out in a roundabout way, that times have changed. The majority ofvotersare no longer mainly boomers, with Australians aged under 44 now making up more than a third of all eligible voters in manykey seats.

This fact is not only largelyignored by the establishment media but by the Federal Opposition, who are still flailing around in the dreary depths of their halcyon boomer-dominated days, when it was okay for treasurers toblamesmashed avo for the housing crisis.Or totellyoung people to "get a good job that pays good money", rather than taking responsibility for their economic policies, which deliberatelyfavouredolder and wealthier people.

As the Grattan Institute's Aruna Sathanapallypointed outon the Insiders Budget Night Special last night:

Overall, Chalmers' Budgetis one of change and hope, though, of course, there are still big gaping holes in areas such as acarbon tax perhaps still a step too risqu for Labor under Albanese.

Fergusons last question was particularly pointed, although based on an inaccurate premise, that this Labor Government has seen Australias weakest productivity growth in 60 years.

Chalmers replied:

Incorrect accusations notwithstanding, Ferguson ended the interview with:

Official data destroys false narratives advanced by mainstream media.

Cool and composed to the last, Chalmers replied that he was happy to explain why the changes were made rather than have to explain why business as usual had been maintained.

However, the Treasurers earlier comment is perhaps the most promising:

If people really do care more about substantive change, it's possible these bold Budget movesmay be welcomed by the changing faces of Australia'svoters.Independent Australiais confident that Chalmers' fifth Budget is set to propel Australia towards a more equitable and prosperous nation and Chalmers to even greater heights.

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