The federal government's political skills are again being exposed as slipshod amid a messy prelude to a pre-election budget.

The final economic blueprint this term, to be revealed in a little more than a week, faces two main tests. First, whether it can help refloat the beached Labor ship and, second, whether it can lock in enduring funding bases for overdue socio-economic reforms, schools, and the national disability insurance scheme.

Brave move: Julia Gillard. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen / Fairfax

Inconveniently for a government being hustled toward the exit, neither is assured.

The schools funding model, generally short-handed as ''Gonski'', is popular and would inject $14.5 billion to school education by 2019.