Victoria's 2019 Budget: Credit money for construction blitz

As Mr Pallas and Premier Daniel Andrews said repeatedly in the lead up to Monday's budget: there will be a surplus, election promises will be delivered and debt will increase while interest rates are low.

The biggest surprise of Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas's fifth budget was there were no big surprises.

On Monday the budget delivered just that, including a surplus of $1 billion. A year earlier they'd hoped the 2019/20 outlook would contain a $2 billion surplus but a slowing property market caused a $5.2 billion write-down across the coming four years.