'That's a meal at Totti's!' howls Sky News staffer over Chalmers' $250 tax break... Plus, One Nation's whispered plans for Ben Roberts-Smith to unseat his nemesis: INSIDE MAIL AT THE BUDGET

By PETER VAN ONSELEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, AUSTRALIA and NICHOLAS COMINO, POLITICAL REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 06:11, 13 May 2026 | Updated: 06:28, 13 May 2026 Budget week in Canberra is always a hothouse. The corridors are packed, the bars are full, the political class is overcaffeinated, and everyone is whispering about something. But this week's most audacious whisper is in a category all of its own: the prospect - still firmly in the realm of rumour, mind you - that Ben Roberts-Smith could run for One Nation against Andrew Hastie in the West Australian seat of Canning. BRS v Hastie. One Nation v the Liberal Party. Pauline Hanson’s populist insurgency aimed directly at one of the Coalition's most prominent conservatives via a decorated war hero soon to be put on trial for murder. A political grudge match with military, legal, personal and ideological layers all sitting on top of one another. Oh, and did we mention that there is no love lost between Hastie and BRS? At this stage, nobody should get too ahead of themselves. These are rumours emanating from a very amped-up Canberra circle during Budget Week. There is no public confirmation that BRS intends to run, no announcement from One Nation, and certainly no formal nomination. But as far as political hypotheticals go, this one has enough connective tissue to make it red hot. This week’s most audacious whisper is in a category all of its own: the prospect - still firmly in the realm of rumour, mind you - that Ben Roberts-Smith (left, with girlfriend Sarah Matulin) could run for One Nation against Andrew Hastie (right) in the West Australian seat of Canning Let's start with Hanson. She has been one of BRS’s most vocal defenders since he was charged with war crimes offences last month. He denies the allegations, and the matter remains before the courts. The charges carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, with the case next listed for committal mention on June 2. BRS is currently free on bail. Then add Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, into this speculative equation. She, too, has been publicly supportive of BRS, and Rinehart is close to Hanson. It's hardly a secret in political circles that Andrew Hastie isn't exactly top of the Christmas card list in that orbit. The personal dimension is just as combustible. Hastie, a former SAS captain, gave evidence in BRS's defamation case. More recently, BRS's partner, Sarah Matulin, posted a comment on Hastie's Anzac Day Instagram post calling him a 'traitor', before later describing it through a lawyer as a mistake, and saying it wasn't posted with Roberts-Smith's knowledge. So the animosity is not imagined. Then there is the electoral logic. The electorate of Canning is precisely the kind of outer-metropolitan seat One Nation would love to target. It takes in Perth's southern fringe and Mandurah, the sort of territory where cost-of-living anger, distrust of institutions, and resentment towards the major parties can find a home. Hastie again won the seat in 2025, but One Nation polled a sizeable 11.4 per cent primary vote, up 6.8 points. And we know the One Nation vote has surged everywhere since then. If Hanson wanted to throw a political grenade into Liberal ranks, it's hard to imagine a bigger one than BRS. Of course, the Victoria Cross recipient is facing criminal proceedings, but the trial is unlikely to be quick, and given the complexity of the case it may well sit on the other side of the next federal election. Being charged is not the same as being convicted. He is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and he is entitled to run for parliament. But if BRS were convicted, he would almost certainly become constitutionally ineligible to remain in parliament, assuming he won. For now, file this extraordinary possibility under the 'Budget Week rumour mill' - but don’t file it too far away. Because if Roberts-Smith really does run for One Nation against Hastie in Canning, you heard it here first at Inside Mail. Hastie (pictured), a former SAS captain, gave evidence in BRS's defamation case  INSIDE MAIL AT THE BUDGETCanberra might pretend that Budget night is about spreadsheets and surplus spin, but give it five minutes and the real action drifts somewhere far more predictable: the bar. This year, the post-Budget migration led straight to Ostani at Hotel Realm, where the capital's ecosystem of politicians, former politicians and professional hangers-on wasted no time congratulating themselves for 'surviving' another fiscal evening. And survive they did, with champagne. Let's start with the journos...  Inside Mail was embedded with the Press Gallery, many freshly released from the seven-hour endurance test that is lockup, looking equal parts relieved and mildly disoriented. News.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden was spotted outside with fellow News Corp colleagues having a ciggie. But of course... The ABC contingent was out in force. Insiders regular Clare Armstrong was circling through the room with ease, with Isobel Roe also seen chatting up a storm. Over at Nine, though, the vibe was noticeably more blokey, with a number of attendees dubbing the female-free group the 'Nine boys' club'. Among those still standing after the recent round of Nine job cuts was Charles Croucher, as well as Chris Kohler, son of the ABC's money man Alan Kohler, who at one point appeared momentarily elsewhere, staring into the middle distance while a senior figure spoke at length beside him. We get it... Meanwhile, the ever-reliable Australian Associated Press (AAP) reporters made a relatively early exit, presumably to do what they do best: file the clean, authoritative copy that much of the rest of the media ecosystem will quietly lean on by morning. A few AAP editors, however, lingered back well after their colleagues had departed. A number of erstwhile Daily Mail reporters were also in the room. Former economics reporter Stephen Johnson, now at the Nightly, was holding court - but thankfully didn't break out into song. Also spotted was Max Aitchison, also late of this parish, now at The Australian, making a byline for the broadsheet's Margin Call column on Wednesday. But the journo highlight arguably came from someone who wasn't even there. Posting feverishly on social media from home, Sky News' Carla Efstratiou - who runs the TikTok account 'Go Woke Go Broke' in her spare time - dropped this very Sydney observation about Treasurer Jim Chalmers' $250 tax break for working Aussies. 'That's like a meal at Totti's. OMG what a joke.'  The journo highlight of the Budget arguably came from Sky News Australia's Carla Efstratiou (left), aka 'Go Woke Go Broke' who dropped this very Sydney observation about Treasurer Jim Chalmers' $250 tax break for working Aussies: 'That's like a meal at Totti's. OMG what a joke' Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers is pictured delivering the 2026-27 Budget on Tuesday night ...circling the political class like well-tailored sharks, and confirming once again that they're the only true constant in the Canberra bubble. They're easily identified by Parliament House's trademark orange lanyards by day. By night, they can be found lurking in the dim lights of whatever bar a target minister is likely to visit. Michael Photios, the veteran powerbroker and perennial Liberal moderate whisperer, was in full flight, champagne in hand, rotating between conversations. In a chat with Inside Mail, he expressed frustration at the Budget's treatment of trusts and changes to capital gains tax. Inside Mail is glad that someone is still speaking for the true-blue Liberal Howard battlers: the people of the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Mary Delahunty, CEO of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, was also making the rounds in notably buoyant form. She declared to Inside Mail that the real winners of the budget were the country's 19 million superannuation holders, a line delivered with the confidence of someone who knows her sector all but controls the government. Also spotted was Labor spin doctor and Gruen regular Dee Madigan, no doubt thinking several moves ahead and pitching for the inevitable negative campaign around the government's tax changes, none of which were taken to an election. Are they snakes? Probably. But Inside Mail salutes these men and women for their tireless efforts of keeping the Canberra nighttime economy thriving. Back-slaps all round at Holt Street over Wednesday's Daily Tele front page, which Inside Mail understands many bigwigs were especially proud of. But seeing Chalmers portrayed as a Soviet communist next to a hammer and sickle inspired a sense of déjà vu. The cover was clearly more than a little inspired by the New York Post's now-iconic front page the morning after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor in a landslide. We'll let you decide which was funnier. Unsurprisingly, the crowd leaned heavily Labor, not least because the party had just wrapped its Labor Business Forum fundraiser upstairs. Tickets ran into the thousands, all for the privilege of hearing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese selling a Budget that was all but leaked to the public by Sunday. Frontbencher Tim Ayres made a very Canberra entrance, on the phone and mid-stride, while a visibly stretched staffer followed behind, juggling two mobile phones. In this town, nothing signals importance quite like outsourced urgency. It wasn't just today's pollies out in force. The former brigade was just as visible - a reminder that Canberra is a little like the Hotel California: 'You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.' Former Labor minister Joel Fitzgibbon, now a Sky News regular, was spotted working the room. Nearby, Simon Birmingham, freshly swapped from Liberal Senate leader to head of the Australian Banking Association, looked remarkably at ease in a role that, conveniently, involves speaking to all the same people, just from the other side of the table. Fancy that! Jackie Trad, the former Queensland deputy premier turned Energy Council of Australia CEO, was locked in an animated conversation with Griffith MP Renee Coffey. Inside Mail can only assume the pair found some common ground in their shared political history with the Greens - namely Max Chandler-Mather, whom Coffey unseated at the last election. Trad, of course, knows that terrain well. She was one of the Greens' earliest Queensland scalps, unseated in South Brisbane in 2020 - a seat that neatly overlaps with Coffey's current patch. The full edition of Inside Mail - the must-read media and politics column exclusive to DailyMail+ subscribers - is out Thursday. Read last week's column here. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. 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