The best budget position in a decade will be used by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann as a badge of economic management.

A deficit of $700 million, in a budget of $485 billion, in an economy approaching $2 trillion, is little more than a rounding error. But it is miles from the record $54.9 billion deficit delivered in 2009-10 when the world went through its biggest economic shock since the 1930s.

With a jobs market that is still swelling - in part because people are being forced into work as wages aren't growing fast enough to help make ends meet - and iron ore prices still strong, a surplus for the 2019-20 financial year is all but assured.

Some of the credit has to go to Senator Cormann who, as Finance Minister, is onto his third treasurer while maintaining a Terminator-like focus on keeping a lid on spending.