The theme of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s first budget – way back in April last year – was “back in black”: it was meant to deliver Australia’s first budget surplus since before the global financial crisis. His second budget – to be delivered on Tuesday 6^th October – will instead include Australia’s largest budget deficit since World War II, of more than A$200 billion (or 10% of GDP).  The Treasurer has already foreshadowed that Tuesday’s Budget will be based on a new fiscal strategy – one which prioritizes economic growth and job creation above ‘budget repair’ and debt reduction, at least until Australia’s unemployment rate drops back to 6% or lower. That looks like the right approach: but in the Budget, the Treasurer will be spelling out precisely how he wants to achieve those priorities. Join me for a discussion of whether what he proposes will help pull Australia out of its first recession in nearly 30 years, and its worst since the Great Depression of the 1930.