For two years Jim Chalmers sold Australia the line that the budget was on a sustainable trajectory.
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Labor's first-term treasurer clung to a narrative that painted himself as a steady hand delivering back-to-back surpluses without needing to resort to deep structural reform.
But the leak this week of a secret government briefing document makes clear that even Chalmers has had to admit what should have been obvious from the start.
Australia's fiscal outlook is deteriorating, productivity is flatlining and the country's tax system remains fundamentally unfit for purpose.
The spin is wearing thin and the second-term Treasurer knows it.
So all that remains to be seen is ... what happens next? The Treasurer is planning to host a three day economic talkfest later this year, but in its aftermath Chalmers will be forced to finally spell out how he plans to raise taxes and cut spending.
That's unless he once again puts serious reform in the too hard basket and does nothing, leaving the budget in the red as debt balloons. That can't be an option.
Pressure's on: Jim Chalmers is softening the ground for an economic reform agenda...
The upcoming roundtable in August is pitched as a carefully curated gathering of economic stakeholders, not a showy talkfest.
But it's also proof positive that the government can't keep going as it has been, racking up debt on the national credit card.
Ever-growing expenditure needs to be reined in, and new ways of taxing are necessary to make the Australian economy fit for purpose in 2025.
What Chalmers once sought to avoid - a full-throated debate about structural tax reform and spending restraint - is now the very thing he's inviting.
Quietly, Labor seems to be shifting ground. It is suddenly open to everything from GST changes to wealth taxes, alongside curtailing capital gains tax (CGT) concessions.
We'll soon see if the ALP has the courage to follow through on any of these, or if it can find other ways to modernise the system to encourage investment rather than discourage it.
The days of congratulating themselves for one-off windfall-driven surpluses are giving way to sober warnings about intergenerational pressures and a productivity malaise.
Those old enough to remember the 1985 Tax Summit might recognise what Chalmers is up to.
Back then, Paul Keating used the event not to clinch deals on the day but to signal his intent: To foreshadow major structural reforms and lay the political groundwork.
Chalmers is drawing from the same playbook, albeit more cautiously, remembering that his PhD was actually a study of Keating's leadership style.
Albanese and Chalmers' issue is Australia has an ageing population, ballooning NDIS spending, defence needs and is going through a costly energy transition... all based on a 20th century tax model
At the heart of the problem in need of fixing is a structural budget deficit that won't go away by itself.
Treasury's long-term projections are grim. An ageing population, rising health costs, ballooning NDIS spending, defence upgrades and the expensive net-zero energy transition are all bearing down on a budget built on a 20th-century tax model.
The Treasurer has finally stopped pretending otherwise, which is why everything is suddenly 'on the table'.
That includes corporate tax rates, personal income tax thresholds, superannuation concessions and even the GST - although there have been enough signals already that GST changes might be a bridge too far.
That's a crying shame.
The same government that spent its first term umming and ahhing over the Stage Three tax cuts before breaking its promise and changing them anyway, all the while insisting the budget was back in the black and 'isn't that great', is now openly flirting with pulling some of the most politically difficult levers in the tax policy playbook.
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Those who watch politics closely worry that the modern Labor Party will mistake raising new taxes as proper tax reform, which it has done before.
Inheritance taxes and taxing the family home remain political killers, but just maybe they too will get a look in given the perilous state of the budget, and given the growing pressures on housing affordability and rising inequality.
But tax reform alone (including higher taxes) won't fix the budget, and Chalmers knows it.
Spending restraint will have to play a key role in whatever happens next. That's where things become trickier. Labor is still heavily invested in programs with long-term outlays and patchy performance metrics, the NDIS being a prime example.
Curbing growth in these areas is politically fraught for Labor internally, including when dealing with a Senate in which the Greens now hold the balance of power.
That means the opposition has an important role to play, despite its diminished post election status.
Again those old enough would remember the Coalition in opposition in the 1980s lent a hand when Keating and Bob Hawke reformed Australia's macro and microeconomic settings, setting up decades worth of prosperity.
It is far from clear that the modern Coalition will back Labor's attempt to reform the tax system, even if Labor steps up to the plate. More likely it will play oppositionist politics and shoot down what Labor proposes, hoping to use ensuing political chaos to fight back electorally.
The danger therefore is that the roundtable becomes a soft launching pad for ideas without political follow-through. We've seen it before. Endless reviews, summits and white papers, all fine in theory but meaningless without the courage to act.
Chalmers wants to position himself as a reforming Treasurer, no doubt with one eye on the prime ministership as his destiny.
But the window for meaningful structural change is already narrowing. If Labor doesn't move decisively the next electoral cycle will again become a contest of small-target tactics and bidding wars.
Anthony Albanese needs to use his thumping majority the same way Hawke did in the 1980s and John Howard did after his 1996 win to campaign on introducing the GST.
The economic environment of today is forcing Labor's hand. Productivity growth is stagnating; business investment is sluggish.
And for years now the political centre has kept splintering as major parties' primary vote continues eroding.
Recognising that Australia has a problem is only the beginning, writes Political Editor Peter van Onselenm
Chalmers is now asking business and unions to come to the table, drop their rehearsed talking points and engage in something resembling genuine dialogue.
But is he serious in doing so?
The first term jobs summit left business feeling mistreated - asked to smile for the cameras before being completely ignored - so it may be about to entering this debate without the trust necessary to get on board.
Equally there are few tangible signs that Labor is ready to do anything other than reward its base with more one sided policy developments.
That said, Chalmers deserves some credit for getting the debate started , belated though it may be.
But recognition of a problem is only the beginning, and he could hardly keep denying the economic problem staring him in the face.
Let's wait and see if he comes up with anything meaningful. The risk is that taxes go up and spending gets cut, but nothing innovative by way of restructuring the system is embraced to lift productivity.