One way the Albanese government has recently tapped into social media audiences for its budgets is by inviting "influencers" to Canberra for the event. This broadens the audience and often garners favourable publicity.
This year, the Prime Minister gave a promo at the start of Toilet Paper Australia's budget podcast, Talking Sh!t, "Hi I'm Anthony Albanese - make sure you're following Toilet Paper Australia".
But social media, of course, is a horse for hire. Post this budget the government was rattled by memes used to effect by critics. Albanese was digitally inserted into small businesses objecting to the capital gains tax hike, with lines such as "He's having a great time with his new 47 per cent equity," and "We're very pleased to welcome Albo to the @_checkonchain team as our new 47 per cent co-owner of the business we've built!"
