It's the grim nature of raw economics that when a river of toxic sludge surged down a Brazilian valley killing about 300 people in January, things really looked up for the Australian budget.

The disaster, caused by the collapse of a tailings dam at Vale's iron ore mine, brought a bonanza to Treasury coffers as the Brazilian company's Australian competitors Rio and BHP raked it in.

Iron ore, priced at $72 a tonne at the time of the lethal sludge slide, started steadily increasing as Vale's production slipped, reaching $122 a tonne. It's since dipped to $91 but this is still 65 per cent higher than the $55 a tonne forecast by Treasury for the current financial year.

Now, before your eyes glaze over, just remember this: every $10 over the forecast iron ore price generates a whopping $3.7 billion for the federal budget over the year.

This bumper iron ore story has masked troubles afflicting the economy; it's why the Prime Minister and the Treasurer can boast that while Germany, Britain and Singapore went backwards in the June quarter, the Australian economy continues to grow.

Twenty-eight years of uninterrupted growth is an extraordinary record, even if another's misery has been to our benefit.

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But how to keep that growth going is in contention, especially in what Josh Frydenberg described this week as a "new world with low interest rates, relatively low unemployment and low inflation".

Beneath the Treasurer's Pollyanna performance on Wednesday, when he sugar-coated the worst economic data since the GFC, the Government appears to be in hot disagreement with the Reserve Bank.

Key people within the Morrison Government believe the RBA should have cut official interest rates harder and sooner. They also believe Governor Philip Lowe has more slashing to do, despite the cash rate already being at an historic low 1 per cent.

The tension between the coalition and the RBA isn't anywhere near the outright hostility seen in the United States, where Donald Trump has asked whether Federal Reserve chair Jerome H Powell is a "bigger enemy" than Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But the Morrison Government is clearly of the view that the Reserve should be doing more to stoke life into the stuttering economy.

Dr Lowe stuck between a rock and a hard place

Dr Lowe must feel like he can't win on this front.

Only last month, Liberal luminary John Howard criticised the Reserve Bank for cutting too deeply, saying it left little room in the event of a crisis, but Dr Lowe would be only too aware that there are folk in Government wanting him to cut further.

The pressure remains on Governor Philip Lowe. ( AAP: Dan Himbrechts )

And the frustration, expressed by the chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Liberal MP Tim Wilson, that the Reserve has serially failed to keep inflation within the target range of 2 and 3 per cent is now clearly shared by Mr Frydenberg.

The Treasurer plans to introduce a system of "please explain" for the Governor every time quarterly figures show the inflation target hasn't been reached.

Given the public statements from Dr Lowe of late, the Governor might consider this proposal as passing the buck.

That's because Dr Lowe has made clear several times his view that engineering an economic jumpstart has to be a joint operation between Martin Place and Capital Hill.

He used a speech three days after the election to make this point, saying job creation was key.

"In the event that the unemployment rate does not move lower with current policy settings, there are a number of options," he told the Economic Society of Australia.

"These include: further monetary easing; additional fiscal support, including through spending on infrastructure; and structural policies that support firms expanding, investing and employing people. Relying on just one type of policy has limitations, so each of these is worth thinking about."

Forcing Morrison's hand proving difficult

Since delivering that speech, Dr Lowe's overseen two interest rates cuts and not ruled out cutting more.

But he's also been consistent in urging the Government to consider extra infrastructure spending and economic reforms and not simply rely on monetary policy to do the heavy lifting.

Convincing the Commonwealth to do more on infrastructure will be difficult. Scott Morrison thinks it's already at its limit.

"We are really starting to hit our head on the ceiling in terms of how much infrastructure work you can get underway at any one time," the PM said on Thursday.

And there isn't any detectable appetite in the ministerial wing for any significant economic reforms that might satisfy the likes of Dr Lowe.

Nor is there any desire to embark on any stimulatory spending that would imperil the budget surplus.

The surplus obsession, shared by Labor and Liberal administrations over the past dozen years, has become acute with the current coalition, as its attainment looms tantalisingly close.

This has complicated the questions of what, when and how to get the economy going.

But what's clear enough, is that Philip Lowe and Josh Frydenberg don't see the solution the same way.