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May 17, 2026 — 5:01am
On Tuesday night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered what will probably go down in history being remembered as the “not-just-another-budget” federal budget.
With major policy announcements having an impact on home ownership, investing, disability insurance, small businesses and so many other fields, there’s no doubt in my mind that this will be something we’ll be talking about for a long time to come.
Much like the budget itself, there were also many opinions about the Albanese government inviting people like me – that is, people in media who aren’t necessarily trained journalists – to attend the budget lock-up in Canberra last year, and again this week.
Though a lot of the people grouped into this cohort use different titles to describe what it is we do – independent media, new media, content creators, influencers, podcasters – for the interest of simplicity, I’m going to refer to us all as new media.
When I and a handful of others were invited to the budget for the first time last year, I could understand why some saw the move as an election-year stunt and felt Labor simply wanted to try to use us for our substantial online followings to score brownie points with young voters.
While I can’t speak to what its goal was in inviting me along, I do know what my reasons for attending were. Firstly, as someone passionate about improving financial literacy, especially among women, I have always studied budgets, even if I wasn’t in the same room as everybody else.
Those kinds of questions are absolutely the reason some of the nation’s top journalists are in the room, but it was not why I was.
Secondly, when you are granted access to the lock-up, it’s not just a sneak peek of the budget a few hours before the rest of the country that you’re getting. It also comes with the opportunity to ask some of the nation’s most powerful decision makers questions about their economic priorities and understand how these might affect millions of Australians in the short and long term.
So when an invitation came up to return this week for a second year, I didn’t hesitate.
Since going this week, I’ve been asked plenty of questions, namely why I decided to leave my two young children at home to attend, and why I asked Chalmers what he was most proud of in the budget.
Answering the first, like most working mums, there is no one single reason. What I will say is that I believe improving the financial literacy of millions by making events like the budget more accessible, especially for women, is worth two nights away from home.
Doing so meant juggling pumping between interviews and ducking out to FaceTime my husband at bedtimes, but that felt achievable and worthwhile, and not unlike a decision countless other working mums and dads make every day.
As for the second, and why I didn’t opt for a more hard-hitting question about broken election promises or lies, I would say that those kinds of questions are absolutely the reason some of the nation’s top journalists are in the room, but it was not why I was.
My job this week was to understand why the government made the decisions it made, what its logic was, if there were mitigating factors and why any previously stated opinions or plans shifted.
“We didn’t use the war in the Middle East as an excuse to not act on some of these intergenerational issues,” Chalmers told me, saying that historically, delivering a budget that addressed only short-term issues such as inflation, petrol prices and fuel security would have been enough, but this budget addressed those issues “in addition to longer-term stuff”.
What I wanted to know was what the government saw as immediate and long-term challenges for young Australians, and if it had a plan to address those challenges. Whether you or I agree with those plans is another question (and one that many journalists have themselves put to Chalmers in the days since).
As for the lock-up experience itself, the first thing to know is that preparation to attend begins well in advance of Tuesday. Four weeks earlier, my colleague Kiara and I registered our interest, and had to sign a legal contract swearing we wouldn’t break the very strict embargo that is in place until the Treasurer stands at the box in the House of Representatives on budget night.
On the day itself, we non-traditional media folk don’t sit in the same room as journalists from media outlets such as this masthead or the ABC. Instead, just under two dozen of us are filed into a separate secure room for our own lock-up experience.
Still, the process is largely the same. About 1.30pm, we hand over our mobile phones, disconnect from the internet our laptops (which were checked earlier in the day to ensure we can’t talk to anyone outside the confines of windowless rooms) and are handed a copy of the federal budget for roughly five hours of uninterrupted perusal and a short time for questions with the treasurer and finance minister.
Much like when a test paper hits the desk during a school exam, as soon as the doors are closed and the budget paper is handed around, silence descends as we all begin scouring the document to try to get across what the big announcements are, where the cuts will be, who are the so-called budget winners and losers, and if there are any hidden nasties.
It’s impossible for anybody to get entirely across a document as dense and as complex as the federal budget (which came in at 990 pages this year when you combine all four papers) in the allotted lock-up time. But you can get across quite a lot, especially when you’re looking out for specific issues that will affect one group of people more than others, such as Gen Z and Millennials.
I think many people would be surprised to know that in the lock-up, despite many of us operating in the same space, there is a real sense of camaraderie. This is, as many people call it, nerd Christmas for shamelessly proud finance wonks like us.
Yes, you have to bring your own snacks in, and by the fifth hour cabin fever feels like it’s about to hit, but the atmosphere is mostly one of excitement.
As soon as the lock-up is over and the embargo lifts, the real push begins. This when all of that frantic, crammed work has to be pushed out. Social media content breaking down the headline issues needs to be posted, podcast episodes need to be edited and pushed out, and analyses must be published.
And sadly, if you’re like me and have a major audio glitch with the podcast recording, that means staying up until 1am to fix it.
You also have to be ready for the next day, which is jam packed with post-budget interviews with politicians from all walks. For me, theseincluded speaking to the prime minister and being offered a beer from Bob Katter’s own reserve.
It is easily an experience unlike any other, and one that, just like the budget, I’m sure we’ll remember and talk about for a long time to come.
Victoria Devine is an award-winning retired financial adviser, a bestselling author and host of Australia’s No.1 finance podcast, She’s on the Money. She is also founder and director of Zella Money.
- Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.
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