The Australian economy may be slowing to the point where the Reserve Bank is being forced to cut the cash rate, but Finance Minister Mathias Cormann remains committed to delivering a surplus in the next financial year.
The government's monthly financial statement released on Friday showed in the financial year to April the deficit was $4.9 billion, $1.9 billion lower than had been expected after 10 months of 2018/19 year.
The budget released in April forecast a $4.2 billion for the full 2018/19 financial year before returning a $7.1 billion surplus in 2019/20, the first in a decade.
"We continue to make progress in getting the budget back to surplus," Senator Cormann told reporters in Perth on Saturday.
"If you look at our performance against budget over the last two financial years it has been materially better."
He again turned his focus on the likely new Labor leader Anthony Albanese and his party, calling on them to abandon their opposition to the government's income tax plan, a key component of last month's budget.
"The government will not be splitting our income tax plan," Senator Cormann said.
"It is a holistic plan, it is a plan that will be put to the parliament in full as soon as all the votes have been counted and the writs have been issued."
Mr Albanese has already said he "will consider" supporting the entire tax plan, after previously flagging support for only the initial stages.
The opposition has previously indicated support for the first part of the plan geared toward low and middle-income earners, but not the government's aim to flatten the tax structure in 2022 and 2024 under the second and third stages of its plan.
