Opposition (2013–2022)

Chalmers was elected to parliament at the 2013 federal election, replacing the retiring ALP member Craig Emerson in the Division of Rankin. He defeated former MP Brett Raguse for Labor preselection.^[8] Chalmers was made a shadow parliamentary secretary in October 2013, a shadow minister in October 2015, and promoted to the shadow cabinet after the 2016 election as Shadow Minister for Finance.^[1]

After the 2019 federal election, Chalmers publicly considered running to succeed Bill Shorten as party leader and Leader of the Opposition. His relative youth and status as a Queenslander were seen as potential assets, as well as his membership of the Labor Right faction. However, some within his faction had already chosen to support the Labor Left candidate Anthony Albanese.^[9][10] Chalmers eventually chose not to stand for the position, allowing Albanese to become leader unopposed. He subsequently also ruled out standing for the deputy leadership.^[11] He was subsequently appointed Shadow Treasurer in Albanese's cabinet.^[12]

Albanese government (2022–present)

Labor was victorious in the 2022 Australian federal election,^[13] and two days later, Albanese had himself, Chalmers and three other senior Labor frontbenchers sworn in as an interim five-person government, with Chalmers becoming the Treasurer of Australia. He was also the interim Minister for Home Affairs until the full ministry was sworn in after the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.^[14] In October 2022, Chalmers handed down his first budget.^[15]

In May 2023, Chalmers handed down his second budget. After being initially predicted to deliver a surplus of over $4 billion, the budget ended up significantly exceeding expectations by delivering a surplus of $22.1 billion (equivalent to 0.9% of Australia's GDP); this is Australia's first budget surplus in 15 years, and the largest ever Australian budget surplus.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Political positions

Chalmers is a member of the Labor Right faction.^[22][23] In 2016 he co-founded the Courtyard Group, a roundtable linking Labor MPs with "Australia's leading progressive thinkers from business, academia, media, and consumer advocacy bodies".^[24]

According to political scientist Carol Johnson, Chalmers' 2013 book Glory Daze "defined Labor as standing for intergenerational mobility, aspiration and the Fair Go, while emphasising the importance of sound economic management". His 2017 book Changing Jobs: The fair go in the new machine age, co-authored with telecommunications executive Mike Quigley, argued that future governments should consider a robot tax to reduce the impact of technological unemployment. He has also expressed positive views on the concept of a universal basic income. In the lead-up to the 2022 election, Chalmers stated that an ALP government would not increase taxes other than on multinational corporations. He also rejected new taxes. His campaigning focused on cost of living issues but also emphasised the need to work co-operatively with business.^[25]

In a long-form essay published in The Monthly in 2023, Chalmers argued for more active involvement by the government in capital markets to collaborate with enterprises that suit the government's social and environmental priorities, describing it as "values-based capitalism".^[26][27][28]