Outgoing Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says there's years of hard budget repair work ahead for the next federal government.
In his final official appearance after 10 years as the central bank head, Mr Stevens warned that the budget faced a number of risks over the medium term.
"The budgetary situation will be okay if nothing else goes wrong, but you know you can't really assume in life that nothing will go wrong over an extended period," he told a Trans-Tasman Business Circle boardroom briefing in Sydney on Tuesday.
"So I suspect that there's quite some years of hard repair work ahead for whoever is the government over the period ahead."
Mr Stevens also defended the RBA's inflation target as the best monetary policy framework in Australian history.
The central bank has forecast inflation to undershoot its target band of two to three per cent for the next two years, leading some commentators to question whether the target is suited to the current economic environment.
But the RBA governor said the flexible policy had helped keep the economy stable for the past 20 years.
"There's been some commentary that we need a different target or another system, I don't actually agree with that," Mr Stevens said.
"It's the best monetary policy framework we've ever had and we've tried most of them."
The taciturn Mr Stevens largely stuck to his usual no-frills script during the interview, as he has for most of his career.
However, he felt comfortable enough to joke when interviewer ANZ NSW and ACT chairman Warwick Smith said he wasn't going to ask what Mr Stevens' plans were for interest rates in June.
"I can't shoot you in front of all these people," Mr Stevens quickly interjected, eliciting a laugh from the audience.
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