PAUL MURRAY: If Anthony Albanese had any sense he would bury this Treasurer

My generation in our family doesn’t need to go back too far — just to a maternal great-grandfather in fact — to find a sausage maker in its ranks.

He was a German-speaking butcher who plied his trade in North Fremantle, siring three sons, two of whom went off to work in the Great War effort as expert munitions engineers in Great Britain. The other became a journalist.

Which might explain why I’ve always quite liked seeing sausages made — literally and metaphorically — despite the old saying that no one should watch either them or laws being processed.

Aphorisms like that get rolled out regularly because there’s usually more than a grain of truth in the good ones.

However, that one I disagree with because it’s essential in an open society that we see our laws — and our politics — being minced up and extruded into products we are meant to consume.

The same goes for the speeches our political leaders deliver, trying to persuade us to their views.

Last weekend, The Australian newspaper offered a fascinating insight into how Treasurer-on-trainer-wheels Jim Chalmers handles sausage-making.

It didn’t reflect well on the bloke who frames himself as the brains in the Albanese Government, the author of a 6000-word treatise last year describing how he intended to reshape capitalism.

In advance of his delivery on August 26 this year of the annual Curtin Oration in Melbourne, Chalmers again channelled his inner Kevin Rudd to set out another economic blueprint — this time postulating a “fourth economy”, whatever that is — but had to run it past Albanese’s office before delivery.

The Australian put in a Freedom of Information request for details of the sausage-making process and came up with a prize-winning salami last weekend.

It showed that Chalmers believes the economy is “very weak” — even though Albanese’s minders didn’t think he should say so — and that he appears to have little time for the Prime Minister’s signature Future Made In Australia policy.

“Internal PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) communications highlighted concerns the speech ‘doesn’t mention Future Made in Australia’, cautioning they ‘don’t want this seen like we are moving away from that’,” Geoff Chambers reported.

“A PMO email said the Treasurer’s office should consider injecting ‘a few more government policies/actions throughout where they can, particularly when talking about the care economy or human capital’.”

But Albanese’s office was particularly concerned about one paragraph in Chalmers draft: “We are fighting inflation and getting the budget in better nick, but without smashing an economy which is already very weak.”

Only a complete amateur as Treasurer would describe the economy over which he had presided for three years as “very weak”.

Governments often rail against pesky Oppositions for “talking down the economy. So why do it to yourself?

And the PMO agrees, suggesting Chalmers drop “the already very weak” point and leaving it at “without smashing the economy.”

“Unemployment is still near record lows and the speech highlights the strength of the labour market with the one million jobs created,” the PMO note stated. “On the household saving rates having fallen point, could be useful to say they have fallen to Howard government levels – RBA chart pack shows that fairly clearly.”

How interesting that Labor still sees the need to measure itself against John Howard’s economy, now over 17 years in the past.

That’s a bit like all the swing-State Democrat congressmen up for election in November who have taken to advertising which Donald Trump policies they supported in office, laying a two-bob each way bet on a Kamala Harris loss.

But back to another dud, Chalmers.

“The oration delivered by Dr Chalmers did not tweak or change the paragraph in his speech,” The Australian reported about the “very weak” reference. “Some alterations were made and Future Made in Australia was referenced once near the end of the address.”

The Australian also noted that Chalmers went right off-piste in the Curtin Oration, not only venturing into areas well outside his portfolio, but mounting a florid attack on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton which led to speculation that he was putting forward his head-kicking leadership credentials to the Labor caucus.

Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley’s reaction to the sausage-making revelations was to note “we now know that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are not on the same page”.

“Jim Chalmers sent his key policy speech for the PM’s feedback, and then refused to toe the government line,” Ley said. “These documents show that despite public assurances to the contrary, Labor’s senior leaders are not working in the same direction at all — it is incredible reading.”

Maybe Chalmers wasn’t quite aware of the ramifications of the FoI revelations when he did his Spotlight interview which was aired on Channel 7 the night after The Weekend Australian’s disclosures.

Chalmers is a significant weak spot for the Government.

In that outing, Chalmers made another significant blue when asked about the fight against inflation that he has so clearly botched.

“I think when it comes to inflation specifically, the worst is behind us,” Chalmers said. The comment could only come from someone with a tin ear.

It should be obvious to him that most Australians don’t feel the worst is over. They haven’t had one cut in their mortgage repayments after 13 increases under Chalmers’ watch.

“The peak in inflation is now in the rear-view mirror and we’re not complacent about that, we’re cautious about that, but we are confident that having been through a very difficult time together, better days are ahead,” Chalmers said.

Kick ahead only four days and the International Monetary Fund released its World Economic Outlook which revised its inflation projections for Australia from 2.8 per cent in April to 3.6 per cent.

Better days ahead indeed.

So it isn’t just the economy getting smashed. It’s the Treasurer, too.

But strangely not by the Canberra press gallery, which still treats him like a superstar, despite this litany of failures.

Chalmers wasn’t even upbraided for his tone deaf comments about keeping Australia out of a recession, sharing his fears each time the national accounts were released that the dreaded two quarters of negative growth were looming.

“There were some moments in the lead up to the release of that data where there was a very substantial risk that the economy might have gone backwards – a lot of relief when we discovered that it hadn’t,” Chalmers said.

Doesn’t he realise that for most Australians, it has felt like we are in a recession? They couldn’t care less what the figures say. They have no sense of relief.

The IMF outlook was damning for Labor’s handling of the economy and Chalmers’ ridiculous battle of wills with the Reserve Bank over how best to reduce inflation.

He’s had three Budgets to tackle inflation and got the recipe wrong each time.

Australia’s projected inflation rate came in second on the IMF list to populist-socialist Slovak Republic, which sits on 4.8 per cent. We were the only country in the percentile band above 3 per cent, still outside the RBA’s charter level of 2-3 per cent.

But the most damning aspect of the IMF projections are all the countries against which Australia might usually measure itself which are expected to have an inflation rate with a figure 1 in front of it: Canada and the US (1.9); France, Italy, Japan (1.8); Ireland (1.4); Switzerland (1).

There’s no escaping those comparisons, which are odious indeed. Even big-spending Labor counterparts, themselves partly responsible for fuelling inflation know that.

“Rita Saffioti (WA’s Treasurer) has refused to share Jim Chalmers’ optimism that the worst of cost-of-living pressures were behind Australia, saying there was still a need to offer relief to households,” The West Australian reported on Tuesday, ahead of the IMF figures.

Of course, Saffioti’s immediate electoral needs for an economic narrative are less pressing than Chalmers’. He doesn’t have a tidal wave of iron ore royalties to polish his star.

Chalmers’ response to his inflation-busting strategy being rebuffed by the IMF was to blame “global volatility”.

“Conflict in the Middle East compounds the pressures already coming at us from the war in Ukraine, the slowdown in China, persistent global inflation, tepid global growth and sharp movements on stock markets,” he said before jetting off overseas again on Wednesday.

But aren’t all those other countries which are doing so much better than us subject to exactly the same volatility?

In boxing terminology, Chalmers is “wide open” for the Opposition. But they don’t seem that interested in landing a telling shot, preferring to keep their focus on Albanese.

While that’s understandable given the Prime Minister’s popularity decline, Chalmers is a significant weak spot for the Government, but he gets away in most of the media with appearing as one of its strengths.

His very obvious track record tells a wildly different story and the IMF has now nailed him as a propagandising dissembler.