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He could have boasted, said it was all his own doing. He could have gloated. Proclaimed mission accomplished.
Instead, he cautioned the fight was not over. And he shared the credit for the welcome news with the people who had shouldered the burden, Australians like you and me who for the past three years watched our living standards slide in the face of inflation and the cost-of-living crunch.
Jim Chalmers smiled but did not wear the smirk of a winner when he faced the media to welcome better-than-expected inflation figures released yesterday. He was calm and measured, projecting confidence without arrogance. Getting inflation down without lifting unemployment was a remarkable achievement we should all be proud of, he said.
This is a plea for all those in politics to adopt some of Chalmers' tone and delivery when pitching their policies. To be more likeable.
Watching him deliver his lines yesterday in clear, concise and non-combative language was refreshing after some of the nonsense hurled our way over the past few months.
From the Prime Minister, whose utterances can be as engaging as a council briefing paper, to the Opposition Leader who trafficks endless granite-faced grievances, and so many in between, the intention seems to be to make politics as unappetising as possible.
Sussan Ley's cack-handed likening of the First Fleet to SpaceX, Musk and Mars.
That little bloke who leads the Nationals floating a culture war on gender before being slapped down by his boss.
The same boss, in one breath, finally delivered an economic policy - making long lunches tax-free - before announcing a Trump-style assault on wasteful government spending the next.
And, of course, the Prime Minister resisting calls for national cabinet to be convened to discuss the rise of anti-Semitism until a childcare centre was torched and he absolutely had to act. Still, when it came to explaining the sudden turnaround, tongue-tied Albanese came across like a municipal mayor thrust suddenly into the spotlight.
It's been a sad parade.
Regardless of their ideological or policy leanings, I want more politicians like Jim Chalmers. Simon Birmingham was one. Likewise Bill Shorten. I didn't always agree with what they said but the way they said it made me want to listen.
No matter what side they're on, all politicians want us to listen closely to their messages as we head towards the election. They'll need to lift their game lest we all switch off.
A good start would be to watch how Jim Chalmers conducts himself. He's had the tough gig and delivered mostly bad news since May 2022 - apart, of course, from the back-to-back surpluses and yesterday's inflation numbers. Yet the Treasurer has always maintained his pleasant demeanour, which makes it easier to listen to what he's saying.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Who are the politicians from either side you're most likely to listen to? Who are the ones that make you switch off? Is Jim Chalmers prime minister material? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- The arrival of Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek may lead to Australia being more competitive in the field, but safety concerns remain, experts say.
- A fugitive has been captured on a boat in the Arafura Sea after allegedly escaping from rehab on the other side of the country and skipping out on a major drug trafficking trial.
- A private school fined $140,000 over a student's tragic death says it has since taken steps to ensure staff and students are safe on school trips.
THEY SAID IT: "Be pleasant until 10 o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself." - Elbert Hubbard
YOU SAID IT: The arrival of the cheeky and cheap Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek gave Silicon Valley's tech oligarchs a taste of their own disruption.
"As my mother used to say: 'All that glitters is not gold'," writes Bill. "It remains spot on, even today, in our overhyped world of disrupters and influencers and biased media and scammers. Your BMW techs probably had a solution, but feared disclosing a design fault to a customer would destroy their 'brand' if it went public. A mate's HSV had its entire drivetrain exchanged overnight after mentioning a 'clunk' at a regular service. The dealer did not disclose, and the change was only discovered while changing tyres later. Had to maintain the HSV brand, now gone! The gig is up, tech-bros! The BS hype of (very) expensive AI and chips has blown up. Just as Chinese EVs are destroying Tesla."
Lee's a fan of AI: "Our son used ChatGPT to sort out a holiday for us through South America. We did it the old-fashioned way and trawled through travel sites. We both came up with a similar itinerary, but ours took days and his took 24 minutes."
"The US finance analysts keep saying that the tech stocks are still in start-up mode, and this is the reason they don't pay dividends (apart from a very small one by Amazon)," writes Phil. "The reality is these are bubble stocks that are severely overpriced for their worth. They will crash and burn like the dotcom bubble of 25 years ago, leading to financial ruin for poorly advised investors."
Sue writes: "Way back in the '60s if I had had the money I might have invested in IBM, but really, I have never had the cash to afford investments, and they all seem risky to me. I try to avoid AI. I hear all this wonderful stuff, but just yesterday, out of desperation, I ended up asking for assistance on a website. You guessed it! A chatbot responded. Could it 'speak' English? Of course not. Did it help? Absolutely! It helped to raise my level of frustration at least 1000 per cent. Did it solve the problem for me? Hell no! That phone call is on today's to-do list, where I will probably spend an hour or so on hold."
