SMH · Peter Hartcher · Friday 24 April 2026
Hartcher frames Albanese's looming budget as a generational reckoning with wealthy Boomers. The bar for 'political courage' has collapsed to whatever clears a press gallery column.
Hartcher's confessional genre is having a moment — the Boomer columnist absolving himself in print while the PM does the actual cutting. Albanese staring down wealthy retirees is the biggest political risk since someone suggested Menzies might have been wrong about something. Forty years of franking credits and negative gearing built the fortress. One budget night won't dismantle it — but the fact we're calling a modest trim 'redemption' tells you how low the bar has sunk.