Jim Chalmers has a unique chance to remake Australia – or to squander $243bn on the rich

Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese. The treasurer has ‘a once-in-a-century opportunity to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on nation building without going into a cent of debt’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Jim Chalmers has a once-in-a-century opportunity to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on nation building without going into a cent of debt. In fact, if he chooses his public investments well, he could drive growth up, cost of living down, and pay down the government’s debt faster than currently expected. Or he can keep the stage-three tax cuts.

But despite the clear evidence that the overwhelming share of the stage-three tax cuts will go to the highest income earners, the attempts to muddy those waters never stops.