POV: you’re Jim Chalmers using social media to sell the most ambitious budget of your life

He’s up before sunrise , pounding the pavement in a cap and running shorts. He’s still up late into the night , having slipped into a comfortable sweater while he checks figures in a darkened office by lamplight, fuelled by sugar-free Red Bull. It’s “decision week”, Jim Chalmers declares of the annual federal budget in a video that pinged around political group chats this week. The treasurer was keen to take people behind the scenes on social media. Budget week is the biggest political week of the year, and it’s not unusual for treasurers to enjoy the limelight. With months of hard work culminating in what can often be a make-or-break moment for governments, the pressure is high, and the main man behind it all is keen to sell the final product and himself, like those before him. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email There was Josh Frydenberg running for the cameras (and the photos of his mulleted tennis playing days made public around 2019’s budget), and the famously awkward photo of Joe Hockey appearing to be consoled by Tony Abbott in a staged photo ahead of their 2015 budget . The pre-budget photo ops are a time-honoured tradition in Canberra. Chalmers has embraced social media. Press conferences and meetings are filmed, footage edited and slowed down for dramatic effect, creative camera shots and quick cuts making for some urgent, pulsing looks at what the treasurer has been up to. …