The Abbott government will be taking pruning secateurs to the budget in May rather than a razor.
That's the impression Prime Minister Tony Abbott is trying to create after the year-long political angst over his government's first budget.
Treasurer Joe Hockey's second attempt on May 12 will be prudent, frugal and responsible, Mr Abbott says.
"When it comes to savings, people will find it pretty dull," Mr Abbott told Fairfax radio on Wednesday.
Repairing the budget this year will not come at the expense of your family budget.
Yet Mr Abbott believes his government can still return the budget to broad balance within five years, as indicated in the recently released intergenerational report.
A Senate inquiry into the intergenerational report confirmed that without legislative changes the budget never returns to surplus over the next 40 years.
The report shows the budget getting close to balance in 2019/20 but then declines into worsening deficits.
"If we continue as we are, these are the circumstances that we face," deputy Treasury secretary Nigel Ray warned the inquiry.
The five-yearly review on how the economy will look in the next 40 years also projects sustained surpluses under a "proposed policy" scenario from 2019/20.
These are based on all the measures put forward in last year's May budget and the mid-year budget review released in December.
However, since then policies like the GP co-payment have been ditched and higher education reforms have been blocked in the Senate.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says the only possible conclusion to be drawn from Mr Abbott's timetable for getting the budget into balance was "more deep cuts".
Not so, says Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
"We did so much of the heavy lifting in last year's budget it doesn't need to be replicated in this budget," he said, adding that 80 per cent of last year's budget measures had cleared parliament.
Labor MP Ed Husic dismissed as "farcical" government talk about a balanced budget within five years when it could not even get the last one through.
"The only way they can do it is to resuscitate all the things they have ditched now ... they are still in the back pocket," he said.
The government's expenditure review committee - also known as the razor gang - is meeting late on Wednesday.
