The Abbott government has reduced its budget black hole by $30 billion over the next decade after its deal with Labor to reintroduce fuel excise indexation.
But Australia continues to face more than a decade of uninterrupted budget deficits, with $74 billion worth of budget repair initiatives still sitting unlegislated — from three previous budgets.
An updated assessment by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office shows the government is facing a cumulative $74 billion budget shortfall between now and 2025-26 after failing to win support for controversial savings measures in the Senate.
The list of unlegislated savings measures includes measures carried forward from the former Labor government's final budget, and the Abbott government's first and second budgets.
Among the items troubling the government is its plan to change the family tax benefit (part B) to remove payments when a child turns six, instead of the current cut-off age of 16.
That would save the government $17.2 billion over the next decade, but it has been blocked by the ALP, Greens and independents.
Another potential saving, worth $7.1 billion over 10 years, is the government's plan to revise family tax benefit end-of-year supplements to their original values and to stop indexation from July 1, 2015.
That would see FTB supplements return to $600 each year for every FTB part A child, and $300 each year for every FTB part B family, but the measure has been blocked in the Senate.
Overall, the budget office assessment shows the cumulative shortfall of unlegislated measures if carried forward for the decade would be $74 billion.
But it also shows that the $74 billion figure is a significant improvement from four months ago.
When the office released its previous update in May, it found the government was facing a $102 billion shortfall between now and 2025-26.
But the Abbott government has since closed that gap by $28.1 billion after striking a deal with Labor to reintroduce fuel excise indexation, and by striking a deal with Labor and Greens to cut the seniors supplement.
The reintroduction of fuel excise indexation is expected to swell government coffers by $22.8 billion over the next 10 years, though lower-than-expected inflation could see that figure reduced.
The seniors supplement deal will save the government $3.5 billion over 10 years.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's recent decision not to proceed with the former Labor government's 0.05 per cent levy on bank deposits up to $250,000 will add another $5 billion to his budget repair task over 10 years.
Greens Treasury spokesman Adam Bandt said Treasurer Joe Hockey ought to use the opportunity of the budget office update to "change tack" if he wants to balance the budget.
"Joe Hockey can either raise $18.1 billion unfairly over the the next four years with his rejected budget measures, or raise $106 billion fairly through measures like axing unfair tax breaks and asking the big banks to pay more," Mr Bandt said.
