October 26, 2026 — 5:22am

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has refused to put a cap on near-record government spending that economists and the opposition insist must be reduced to tame inflation while admitting his ambitious budget is causing his colleagues to worry about Labor’s electoral fortunes.

Chalmers told this masthead’s Inside Politics podcast he was “not prepared to put a specific number on the optimal spending as a share of GDP” despite calls from leading policy thinkers such as Ken Henry and Saul Eslake for rules to impose fiscal discipline.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has pushed back demands to set a level of government spending.…