Instead of winning plaudits, why did Jim Chalmers’ budget surplus leave pundits nonplussed?

With the 2023 budget, Jim Chalmers has skipped a few steps and gone straight to a surplus and then back to a deficit. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

All treasurers – and, to be honest, those who write about the budget – should have the mantra: don’t worry about budget surpluses or deficits, worry about the economy.

There was a sort of glorious irony that a budget surplus has been delivered after so many years of deficits and no one really cared too much.