Jim Chalmers’ Sunday run began at 3.46am. This is his warm-up for the budget

Jim Chalmers has four affirmations scrawled across the top of his talking points: “forty-one”, and “SH, HH, WH”.

Afterwards, he pads around his office in dinosaur socks chosen by his five-year-old son Jack. Two days before he hands down his third federal budget, Chalmers, 46, still hasn’t finished writing a speech that will run to about 3900 words. This masthead spent much of Sunday following Chalmers around, to observe Australia’s 40th treasurer up close to try to figure out what makes the man who holds the nation’s purse strings tick.

Almost as soon as we enter his personal office Anthony Albanese is on the phone, his voice just about audible.The PM does most of the talking, while Chalmers nods and ‘mmms’ agreement; he mentions the fact Albanese got to watch his “Hawkies” defeat the Saints in Tasmania the day before, a question the ABC’s Melissa Clarke had asked him and the fact the pair, along with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, will have dinner that night in the Lodge.

After Tuesday, only four Labor treasurers will have delivered more budgets – Paul Keating, Ben Chifley, Swan and Andrew Fisher – and the hair at Chalmers’ temples is starting to grey. There isn’t a van Gogh in sight in Chalmers’ office – the only artwork of any description is pictures of, or drawn, by his kids, Leo, Annabel and Jack, as well as pictures of his wife Laura – and while the current treasurer describes his predecessor as “the gold standard for storytelling”, he quickly adds “we have a different set of challenges”.

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