Surprisingly close to the last election, Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey were still promising a golden age for Australia's finances. "Our commitment is emphatic. Based on the numbers published today, we will deliver a surplus in our first year and every year after that," Hockey told the ABC's AM program in January 2013, just eight months before the poll.

Not any more. Now it's more like, "Meh! near enough is good enough".

After dialling in some $30 billion in savings, and being blocked on measures totalling about the same amount, Abbott said on Wednesday that the nation's fiscal outlook can be viewed as a glass half full rather than half empty.

This sunny optimism might be admirable but it is hardly credible from the pair who warned endlessly of a debt and deficit disaster under Labor, characterising any deficit at all as evidence of fiscal irresponsibility. Then, a net debt-to-GDP ratio of about 13 or 14 per cent in the aftermath of the global financial crisis was more-or-less grounds for impeachment. Now we're told a projected four-fold increase out to 50 or 60 per cent over the next four decades (based on current policy settings and heroic growth assumptions) is pretty good compared to other countries. Job done.