While the Abbott government's budget repair task is not urgent, it "remains huge", a respected economist warns.
Deloitte Access Economics' Chris Richardson - who has long argued for the budget to be put on a sustainable footing after a government spending spree as far back as the latter years of the Howard government - is scathing of the "obstructionism" of the Senate.
"The May 2014 budget has struggled to get through a Senate more intent on scoring populist points than on fundamental fiscal repair," Mr Richardson said in his latest Business Outlook.
He says the basic problems haven't gone away.
When the China boom was at its height, the tax windfall to Canberra was massive.
While that turned out to be temporary, the promises made off the back of it turned out to be permanent, leaving a budget repair task the Senate is choosing to ignore.
However, the one big deal that has got through the upper house - the abolition of the mining tax and related spending initiatives - managed to do so without much cost to the bottom line.
Even so, the collapse in iron ore prices this year are a stark reminder that the "economic downdrafts" hitting the budget aren't going away, Mr Richardson says in the report released on Monday.
But he doesn't believe this price fall worsens the dollars in the budget by "heaps".
This is because Treasury forecasts for nominal economic growth, which accounts for the drivers of revenues, were already conservative.
Treasurer Joe Hockey will hand down his mid-year budget review in December.
Mr Richardson says public sector job cuts are hitting home in Canberra, where there is now plenty of weakness across a range of economic indicators.
"The news could get worse from here if the feds (sic) look for alternative savings following the blockage of key budget measures by the Senate," he says.
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