The federal budget has put Tony Abbott back in the game. The Steve Jobs of the political world, he was responsible for his fall and has now engineered his comeback.

The Abbott government is now back at parity with the opposition for the first time since last year's budget. On the election-deciding measure, the two-party share of the vote, they stand at 50:50.

"After a whole year in the doldrums, Tony Abbott is now back to where he was in the autumn of 2014," observes the Fairfax pollster, Ipsos's Jess Elgood. "This will be depressing reading for the Labor party."