The budget we had to have? By Lachlan Maddock 10 May 2021 Desperate times call for desperate measures – but it’s unclear whether Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will deploy any on budget night. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg finds himself walking a tightrope, committing to repairing the economy while maintaining the LNP’s reputation as the party of fiscal responsibility. Any misstep will have disastrous consequences for an election that will likely be coming sooner rather than later, or for the fortunes of a country that is still recovering from a historic shock. But it seems that Mr Frydenberg will deliver a budget that nobody is happy with: free-market conservatives are disappointed by increased government spending, while Labor and the Left believe that the government has not spent enough, or on the right policies.