How it started and how it’s going: Australia’s 2022 budget suggests black will never be back

Josh Frydenberg at a press conference before delivering his 2022 Australian federal budget speech. The days of announcing surpluses are long past. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Back in Black was the AC/DC song that accompanied Josh Frydenberg’s first budget, when Highway to Hell would have been more apt.

Of course, Frydenberg didn’t know the Covid pandemic would hit a year later.