The budget sell has begun as the Howard Government gears up for the next election and positions itself for political advantage over the ALP.

It's a spending spree by a government awash with cash from the soaring tax revenues from mining profits and strong employment growth. And the big-spending budget will not put further pressure on interest rates by overstimulating the economy through fuelling consumer demand:

Bruce Petty

This message from all the showbiz is that this is a responsible budget as it will deliver a strong surplus and position the country for a prosperous future. That should open the gate for the ALP to reply in terms of the lack of fumdamental reform, the low investment in human capital, and t budgetary policy and interest-rate policy pulling in opposite directions - increasing the possibility the risk of further rate rises.

Will the core of the Beazley response be to finance the capacity of the economy to keep exp[nding for the next generation? I wonder if this issue will be addressed in any substantive way?

My guess is that there will be little about climate change in the Budget---no mention of pricing carbon emissions to reflect accurately the cost of the damage they inflict. We will end up in the same way as we did with the Murray Darling Basin--spending more and more money to repair the damage caused by ignoring the envirornmental consequences of resource based development.