A revolution in reverse 13 May 2021 On budget night, Australia witnessed another stunning performance of the Frydenberg tango: one step forward, two steps back. After innumerable pre-budget “leaks”, the surprise up Josh Frydenberg’s sleeve was $29 billion in tax cuts for low and middle-income earners – doubtless a win for those who’d like to keep more of their money, but hardly the sweeping reforms required to make Australia’s economy more dynamic and less reliant on the exports that Paul Keating referred to in his infamous “banana republic” comments in 1986. The rationale here (as it was in October) is that this budget was necessary to ensure the recovery and return of the economy to its pre-COVID state. As even the most disinterested observer of the pre-COVID economy would attest, that is not a desirable outcome – nor one that will necessarily be achieved by the budget. Stimulus measures and closed borders have already seen Australia mostly return to where it was. The mission now is to get it to where it should be.