The budget emergency is over.

That’s what the Prime Minister appeared to be telling voters on Wednesday when he announced that this year’s federal budget would be a “dull” affair because last year’s document made the nation’s finances manageable once again.

“There’s no cause for alarm under this government because we have got the budget situation from out of control to manageable,” Tony Abbott said.

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Alongside the promise of calm, Mr Abbott added a dash of economic hope with a promise to bring the budget to balance within five years, a bold step for a PM who lashed the former Labor government for failing to deliver on the same issue.

However, during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Deputy Secretary of Treasury’s fiscal group, Nigel Ray, confirmed that the current fiscal settings would never move the budget from the red to the black.

“There is no surplus across the 40-year projection period,” he said.

Surpluses could only be achieved by making difficult decisions.

“There would need to be either the Government’s announced policy or some replacement for them,” Mr Ray said.

The announcement and the promise mark a major shift in the government’s rhetoric about the budget, if not the underlying health of the national accounts.

In the lead-up to the May budget, structural cuts and savings in areas such as health, education and the pension that were attempted in the first budget have been put on the backburner and the government is likely to seek one-off savings from changes to programs.

“If Australia’s net-debt-to-GDP ratio could be contained to 50 or 60 per cent, that would be a pretty good result by international standards,” Mr Abbott said.

“This is a budget that will involve structural change, but they will be much less drastic structural changes than the ones that were in last year’s budget.”

In a series of media appearances, the PM also unveiled a new slogan, saying repeatedly during press conferences that this year’s budget will be “prudent, frugal and responsible”.

“When it comes to savings, people will find it pretty dull,” he told Fairfax radio on Wednesday morning.

But not everyone was on message.

On Wednesday afternoon former Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos said the government should stay the course on budget savings.

“I’m saying that we can’t take the foot off the pedal on this,” he told Sky News.

“I can’t give you the scale of savings compared to last year.

“But over time we do have to have important big reforms that give us the savings that mean we have … the sort of budget that is a cushion for the inevitable economic shocks.”

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen said the only possible conclusion to be drawn from Mr Abbott’s timetable for getting the budget into balance was “more deep cuts”.

Not so, said Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

“We did so much of the heavy lifting in last year’s budget it doesn’t need to be replicated in this budget,” he told Sky News, adding 80 per cent of last year’s budget measures had cleared parliament.

Agriculture Minister and The Nationals Party member Barnaby Joyce told Sky News on Wednesday night that the government “wants to balance the books, but we have to deal with the Senate”.

Labor MP Ed Husic dismissed a “farcical” government talk about a balanced budget within five years when it could not even get the last one through.

“The only way they can do it is to resuscitate all the things they have ditched now … they are still in the back pocket,” he said.

But the Prime Minister says the budget won’t hurt Australian families.

“We are not going to repair our budget this year at the expense of your family budget,” he told Radio 2SM on Wednesday.