Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has struggled to land a blow on the governments carefully calibrated budget. After Treasurer Jim Chalmers first draft budget in October last year, the full May budget was always going to be a messaging budget, more designed to set Labors values narrative than set up the nation. But Dutton made a mistake by responding to the measures instead of the messages.

Stuck in the shadows: Peter Dutton has struggled to land a blow on the budget. Nick Moir

To adapt a maxim from management guru Peter Drucker, there are only two things in a budget that matter: innovation and marketing everything else is cost. There is nothing innovative in . Which leaves just marketing and, inevitably, costs.

It is high-quality marketing. Even before his speech on Tuesday night, the May budget was well sold. For weeks, budget drops had been given to the media. Where the dropped measures attracted blow-back, the treasurer had plenty of time to adjust. When a mooted JobSeeker raise for over 55s attracted the ire of younger voters, a payment was found for all jobseekers with earlier access to a higher rate for over 55s. Eligibility for the single parenting payment was perhaps going to be extended a little say to parents with a child under 12 years but following media campaigning by advocates, the cut-off was raised to 14.

The government has proven itself an excellent listener, responsive to advocates who make a strong and popular case. Great communication is based on good listening, and this budget established Chalmers as the strongest communicator to hold the role of treasurer for years.

Selling the budget: Chalmers is the strongest communicator to hold the role of treasurer for years. Alex Ellinghausen

Labors narrative building was assisted greatly by the post-election mini-budget last year. Explained at the time as an opportunity to update forecasts, put the Albanese governments election promises in play and cut back wasteful spending, the October budget papers reprioritised funds from existing programs the new government declared wasteful into non-specific slush funds. In May, that money was prioritised into new areas. But because of the October exercise, it is harder to say that the government cut any particular program in favour of another, removing a potentially effective attack line. Communications specialists everywhere will admire this clever tactic.

Chalmers has also shown himself willing to kill the darlings that might muddy his messaging. Wellbeing budgeting, which has been a Chalmers obsession for years, was nowhere to be seen. It has also been purged retrospectively from the October budget. In the online archives, Budget Paper 4 which contained the wellbeing addendum has disappeared. Measuring what matters, as Chalmers dubbed it, will have to wait till later this year.

Curiously, another measurement yet to be forthcoming is uptake on the There is no data to justify the decision to announce another 300,000 fee-free places this week. Instead, it is all message. As Skills and Training Minister Brendan OConnor puts it, the message is that, reducing cost of living pressures and ensuring no one is left behind is a key element of the Albanese governments plan.

In this and many other measures, the budget was carefully calibrated to convey that Labor values are responsible and fair. It lays claim to the title of better economic manager by delivering a surplus, while providing assistance however scant to people in the lowest income brackets. The sales pitch before, during and after budget night, has been that this is a budget driven by Labor values of helping the most vulnerable.

The opposition leader has criticised Labor over the rising cost of living and forecast migration numbers in an attack on the federal budget.

Strongly held values can only be refuted with values equally considered, nurtured and held. But in , Dutton nickle-and-dimed the individual measures in the budget while failing to articulate a Coalition set of values that would guide the alternative government. Instead, as the Liberal Party has done over a couple of years now, he promised something much like Labor, but perhaps a little less. The big announcements of the reply speech were that the Coalition would back nuclear power for Australia, would prefer migration slows down a bit while infrastructure building speeds up, and thinks people on welfare should be able to work for another $150 a week before losing their benefits. If there is a values framework informing those policies, it remained in the most secret heart of the opposition leader.

Perhaps this is because Liberals hoping to refresh the party are still searching for modern-day solutions in the 80-year-old writings of Robert Menzies, like the faithful interrogating the Talmud. Meanwhile, the right questions are packaged up plainly in the Labor Party narrative. Like what assistance for the vulnerable really means. Whether centralised child and aged care solutions are an ideal outcome for society. And whether children growing up in households without a working parent need some form of non-financial support to ensure welfare dependency doesnt become intergenerational. The answers to these questions, with just a sprinkling of the wisdom of old Bob, have the potential to give birth to a modern set of Liberal Party values.

While Chalmers is creating a strong, marketable brand for modern Labor, the Liberal Party has not yet grasped its in a branding war. The next Labor budget will no doubt also contain innovation; if the Liberals havent re-established a strong values-based brand by then, they will still struggle to cut through.

It was amusing to those who seek out symbols that, upon entering the hall in which the budget reply dinner was held, guests were confronted with the National Museums old dinosaur bones. It could be taken as a warning at least by those who didnt instantly feel like theyd arrived home.

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Duttons reply shows there is little meat on Liberal bones - Sydney Morning Herald