Revenues surge
Here's a great summary of the mid-year economic and fiscal update by macro machine James Foster.
In short, there's now a significant Budget surplus of $4.1 billion forecast as soon as 2019/20, which is absolutely miles ahead of initial estimates.
The beat has been due to tax revenues from falling unemployment and higher iron ore and coal prices.
The in-fighting Coalition is justifiably getting walloped in the polls for its squabbles, and looks to be well out of the two-horse race at this stage.
The huge windfall of tax receipts gives the government a war chest with which to fight the election on an agenda of tax cuts.
Electorates often don't respond too favourably to Hail Mary passes, but since Labor hasn't fumbled that's what seems likely.
