Good morning Tylko,

Jim Chalmers is promising to save more than he spends in next week’s crucial federal budget, as Australia’s biggest employers push the Treasurer and Anthony Albanese to impose strict limits on spending, debt levels and the tax-to-GDP ratio.

Chalmers says he will bank windfall revenue and savings, as he brushes off suggestions that changes to negative gearing would damage trust with the Australian public. But economists have warned the budget risks prioritising “optics” and “presentation” over meaningful reform.

While Business Council chief executive Bran Black tells The Australian: “We must get our economic fundamentals right or, in the long-term, the country will pay through lower living standards for everyone”.

Chalmers’s claim that the government will save more than it spends next Tuesday will need to be put under the accounting trickery microscope. With spending expected to come in just short of a mammoth 27 per cent of GDP, the devil will be in the detail.

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