The latest Guardian Essential report shows there is substantial work to do in convincing Australians of the merits of significant housing and tax reform The annual tabling of the budget and the budget reply may have been presented as a dusty ritual but the secret to understanding how it has landed is to recognise that the world is changing, perhaps irrevocably. We are in a new asymmetric political contest in which a dominant party is imposing its agenda on a fragmented polity as a wounded opposition staves off a rising populist wave and a growing band of independents look to formalise their own coalition. Continue reading...