Federal budget 2022: six graphs that reveal the sugar-hit election strategy

‘This 2022 federal budget is just a sugar hit with no sense of ongoing growth.’ Photograph: Daniel Allan/Getty Images

You can at least credit the Coalition with not being subtle.

This was always going to be a budget to get re-elected rather than one that bothered with anything so tawdry as economic growth or ongoing structural issues in the economy. Pass the sugar and keep heaping it out until the election – and we’ll deal with the consequences later.