The Turnbull government's budget was created to pass a "recalcitrant" Senate and avoid double dissolution, former prime minister John Howard believes.
After the government failed to get its expenditure reduction measures through the senate, it had to find a different path, Mr Howard told a PwC post-budget event in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The Turnbull and Abbott governments were had a much more difficult time negotiating with the main party on the crossbench, The Greens, than he ever had with the now-defunct Democrats, Mr Howard said.
And measures such as the banking levy - which Mr Howard pointed out was really a tax - would not be challenged by Labor.
"The path of banging your head against a recalcitrant Senate door was not going to be successful and a different path had to be chosen," he said.
But while he understood the context of the budget, Mr Howard said he was "troubled" by the powers given to the new Banking Executive Accountability Regime.
The regime will police executive conduct.
"We should have a set of employment rules that apply to everybody," Mr Howard said.
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