Budget 2019, The End Of A Zany Parliament And Waiting For An Election

Conventional wisdom suggests there are two types of Budgets: one that's in surplus, and one that's in deficit. But there's also the Budget type that is totally political, and we've got a feeling Josh Frydenberg's first (and probably final) Budget is in the realm of smoke and mirrors. Anyway, we'll let you know in September 2020 if it was truly a surplus Budget – that's when we'll actually find out.

The 45th Parliament was action-packed – two different Prime Ministers, mass resignations due to the citizenship debacle, several Super Saturday by-elections, and the government ended up finding itself plunged into minority. For the fine aficionados of politics, it's great news. But it's terrible news for the electorate: they crave stability and all they're getting is political navel gazing and opportunism. It's simply not good enough.

Waiting for the 2019 election to be announced is worse than Waiting for Godot. And just like Estragon, Scott Morrison is hoping to catch Labor with its pants down, but we don't think that's going to happen. The kitchen sink has been thrown at Bill Shorten and there's not much more that can be thrown at him. The Coalition is still behind in the polls and the last date to hold the election is May 18. Or is it? May 25 is now seriously considered an option, but the electorate wants an election now.