Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has promised to give a "more realistic" assessment of how the global economy will impact on the Australian budget than his predecessors.
This will ensure future revenue forecasts start from a "more appropriate base" when putting together the budget, he says.
It's an admirable approach given the former Labor government was continually having to downgrade its revenue forecasts, usually blaming events overseas, and a key reason why it failed to achieve its much-promised surplus in the last financial year.
But being pin-point accurate is always going to be easier said than done.
For example, who would have thought politicians in the United States would have again taken the world's largest economy to the brink of disaster.
Only two years ago the US lost its AAA credit rating with Standard & Poor's because of a similar standoff over the US debt ceiling.
This time another global agency, Fitch, put the US on notice that it could lose its top-tier rating from them because of the political brinkmanship that increased the risk of a default.
The stoush enforced a partial shutdown of the US government's operations for over two weeks before a debt ceiling deal was secured on Thursday. That deal has only pushed the problem out to early next year.
S&P estimates the government shutdown has taken $US24 billion ($A25.24 billion) out of the economy, cutting growth in the December quarter by a significant 0.6 percentage points.
It also warned of more possible damage when the political battle over the budget and debt ceiling resumes in January, further scaring consumers, especially if government workers are laid off without pay during the shutdown.
Still, Hockey, and Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson, should have a good handle on the global outlook more broadly after several major international get-togethers for finance ministers in his short time as treasurer.
There was the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bali the day after Hockey was sworn in last month, and last week a Group of 20 meeting in Washington, that also included the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.
Hockey also went to New York to meet international business leaders and rating agencies, and delivered his first major speech as treasurer.
He laid out the coalition's agenda beyond its plan to abolish the carbon and mining taxes - a National Commission of Audit, a Financial System Inquiry, a root and branch review of competition polices and a taxation system review.
Hockey reiterated the government's ambition to return the budget to surplus, but on a "realistic timetable" that properly recognises the state of the government's books.
His first task, however, will be to legislate to lift the Australian government's own debt ceiling.
The current limit of $300 billion is expected to be tested by Christmas, while in government Labor had forecast a debt peak of $370 billion in 2015/16.
Hockey told the American Australian Association that Labor changed the debt ceiling no less than four times during six years of power, an approach that "only adds to uncertainty".
"We believe the debt limit needs to be at a level that provides sufficient headroom to accommodate likely events, but also to provide discipline to budget management," Hockey said.
He warned that Australian economic growth was likely to remain below trend for "some time" due to the receding mining investment boom and the failure to lift productivity in recent years.
He also signalled delivering his first mid-year budget review before Christmas, and not January as previously flagged.
It was earlier suggested the government didn't want to upset confidence before Christmas with a worrisome budget update.
Given the world economy has been on the brink of catastrophe in the past two weeks, and that has already jarred on consumer confidence here, perhaps Hockey & Co realised they were being a little overcautious.
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