POV: you’re Jim Chalmers using social media to sell the most ambitious budget of your life | Australian budget 2026

HE before sunrisehe hits the pavement with his hat and runs in shorts. HE I’m still up late at nightHe wore a cozy sweater as he checked the numbers by lamplight in a dark office, fueled by a sugar-free Red Bull.

Jim Chalmers declared today is “decision week” regarding the annual federal budget. A video circulating in political group chats This week. The treasurer was keen to take people behind the scenes on social media.

Budget week is the biggest political week of the year and it is not unusual for finance officials to be in the spotlight. With months of hard work often resulting in a make-or-break moment for governments, the pressure is high and the real man behind it all, like those before him, is eager to sell the end product and himself.

There was Josh Frydenberg I run to the cameras (and photos of her tennis days public circa 2019 budget) and the famously bizarre photo of Joe Hockey appearing to be consoled by Tony Abbott in a staged photo ahead of the 2015 budget. Pre-budget photo shoots are a long-standing tradition in Canberra.

Chalmers has embraced social media. Press conferences and meetings are filmed, footage is edited and slowed down for dramatic effect, and creative camera shots and quick cuts give an urgent, compelling look at what the treasurer is doing.

Chalmers’ budget week posts covered every social media trend: content posting, unboxing videos, casual chats on camera while making coffee, and edited clips that followed her through the day.

Everyone in Canberra is a content creator these days. With all parties now struggling to win over voters online as well as in the real world, it is commonplace to see politicians filming TikToks in parliament’s courtyard, turning up to public demonstrations wearing large Rode microphones on their lapels, or holding media conferences with their own cameramen amid television cameras. Labor and Liberal MPs make publications with the content “I read the budget, so you don’t have to”; Even senior minister Don Farrell is sharing “POV: entering budget day” clips of him walking stiffly across a courtyard.

Chalmers has been releasing behind-the-scenes content for some time, and his own team has been airing it at press conferences. reverse images of cameras And Long, lingering shots of journalists I’m listening carefully.

Budget selling is no different. The caption on one of Chalmers’ videos read “POV: first budget copy unboxed”; A staff member excitedly entered his office and handed him a printed version of his work. “Perfect early start to the morning, running towards the Treasury,” read another post, in a blurry action shot of Chalmers in training gear as he logs miles through Canberra’s pre-dawn darkness. Elsewhere the treasurer speaks to the audience Exploding a Nespresso capsule coffee machine or meeting with a group of young people for another caffeine hit.

The federal budget, a dense economic document running hundreds of pages, is a tough sell for the average punter. Flow charts, complex math and accounting tables are not very interesting. It’s not hard to see why you’d want to give viewers an easier entry point. It is rumored that the second part of Chalmers’ “decision day” video will be coming soon.

Chalmers has given budget lock access to another crop of social media creators and influencers this week, offering popular pages such as Cheek Media, Tash Invests and the ‘Money Money Money’ podcast an early look at the papers and opportunities to interview key ministers. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave an interview to the Toilet Paper Australia comment page, while other pages also posed questions to Chalmers during the day.

Information warfare is real, and the weapon is the volume of content across as many streams as possible. Politicians still care about coverage in traditional media, as the budget lock-in, press conference and subsequent media blitz are still a critical part of the strategy. But winning over social media feeds and online platforms where more people spend more of their lives, reaching unengaged voters who don’t read the news or are more influenced by relatable content than a week’s worth of positive newspaper headlines, is a challenge for modern politicians.

Some politicians feel stupid doing these things. You can instantly tell those who get excited when the tripod and ring light come out, or those who are clearly reluctantly dragged out of line by their young staff. But at a time when voters ignore politicians and the news and value authenticity, allowing them to see a different side of elected leaders can be a powerful tool.

Take, for example, David Pocock’s hugely popular public campaign for a gas tax: This is a niche and complex area of ​​policy, but go to the comments sections of Albanese or Chalmers lately and you’ll find the replies are awash with calls to change the tax. An outspoken non-political figure, Pocock has won over a large swath of the public with his initiatives as well as his commentary page Punters Politics.

One of the most read comments on Albanese’s latest Instagram post reads “lol, tax the damn gas.” 8 of the top 10 comments are about gas.

At a time when politicians are at loggerheads, populism is on the rise and dissatisfaction is widespread, Albanese and Chalmers have publicly acknowledged that major changes to the budget are partly about showing voters they do not accept the status quo and trying to respond to concerns about a broken system. Authenticity is key, the main word used by One Nation supporters to praise Pauline Hanson.

Posting a few coffee selfies and videos isn’t going to solve this problem overnight. Nowadays, however, it may make more sense for bettors to try to explain the budget with lots of busy graphs and spreadsheets.