The Curse of Lefty Lady Love

What manner of Labor Treasurer might Jim Chalmers prove to be? Will he follow the example—God forbid—of Jim Cairns, whose only notable accomplishment during his brief period as Treasurer was to hire Junie Morosi?

Or might Chalmers prove to be a reincarnation of Paul Keating, who accomplished a few decent things as Treasurer before becoming a prime ministerial test dummy for wokeness and then dedicating the next twenty-five years of his life to endlessly talking about himself?

Perhaps Chalmers will model himself on Wayne Swan, who went to enormous lengths in his every budget to trick up numbers so that it looked as though Australia under Labor was in surplus. Swan even announced multiple surpluses in advance, despite—and this was quite the drawback—never actually achieving a surplus. Not even close.

Sadly, early signs point to a second Swan variation under Treasurer Chalmers. He’ll likely not be predicting any surpluses, because no Treasurer will be doing so for at…