Forget about Tuesday night's federal budget.
The actual budget will be designed by a rugby league legend, a former soldier and a bunch of other senators most Australians have never sighted.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott almost admitted as much during the traditional post-budget sales pitch.
The government would be happy to talk respectfully to the independents and the minor parties in the Senate, he said.
"And obviously a certain amount of horse-trading is something that you just accept is part of the business," Abbott said.
What Abbott won't accept is an attempt to completely frustrate the business of government.
The PM went further. He doubted cross-bench senators would be returned should the budget be so frustrated that a fresh election was needed.
Abbott has a measure in his back pocket that could help realise that hope. Labor and the Greens last week agreed to reform the Senate voting system, making it less likely micro parties and independents could win enough votes to secure seats.
The "optional preferential" system is likely to clear parliament relatively easily, meaning more Senate seats going to Labor and the coalition at the next election.
The balance of power from July 1 lies with micro-parties including the Palmer United Party, Family First, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party.
The "micros", as they are known, are seen as something of a joke in Liberal circles.
"I don't have the capacity to psychoanalyse them and I don't encourage anyone else to try," Treasurer Joe Hockey told 600 business leaders at a post-budget lunch.
But they are a serious threat to a government wanting to deliver its first budget.
There are some signs of compromise.
The Greens - although divided in the party room - have signalled they will pass the fuel tax hike, but want some of it for public transport.
Labor is likely to back the deficit levy after it assesses the political risk of arguing the rich should not pay a little more when welfare recipients and pensioners are being asked to do the same.
The $7 Medicare co-payment for GP visits will have to be secured by a deal struck with six of the eight cross-bench senators.
Family First senator-elect Bob Day and the Liberal Democrats' David Leyonhjelm say price signals are important in the health system, but have flagged an interest in talking to the government about jobs and housing.
Even the government's promise to divert most the Medicare co-payment into a new medical research fund - set to be the world's largest - may not be enough to get it off the ground.
The fate of lifting the pension age to 70 by 2035 and reducing the size of regular pension rate rises is also uncertain.
Billionaire MP Clive Palmer, whose party will have three senators (including league legend Glenn Lazarus and ex-soldier Jacqui Lambie) and links with another cross-bencher Ricky Muir, has taken rhetorical swings at the budget.
But he left room for a bit of wheeling and dealing - something which Palmer has shown some expertise over the years - when he said: "We're not blanketly (sic) against the whole budget."
The cross-bench senators will get together in the first week of July when they arrive in Canberra for a two-day training session and informal talks with each other.
Senate clerk Rosemary Laing told AAP that "the need to negotiate and the potential outcomes of doing so" are discussed during a section of the training.
In the following week, the government has scheduled a special four-day Senate sitting to test support for not only the budget, but also its carbon and mining tax repeal bills.
The premiers may also have some sway over the budget's fate.
Liberal and Labor state leaders alike spontaneously combusted when they heard the budget would take $80 billion away from schools and hospitals and undermine agreements struck with the previous Labor government.
A "kick in the guts" - the line used by NSW Liberal Premier Mike Baird - summed up what most of them felt.
The premiers will meet this Sunday to discuss their next course of action.
With opinion polls giving Labor an election-winning lead, Abbott is more likely to go down the horse-trading route than head to the ballot box.
If he's lucky, the final budget may bear some resemblance to Tuesday's bundle of documents.
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