At this gravest of times the Coalition has served up an election budget designed simply to keep itself in power | Katharine Murphy

Indeed, we do.

This is a plan for the next few months.

This is a budget with one central objective: the re-election of the Morrison government in May.

More than $8bn over the next two years.

Both of these observations are true.

Also true: had the Coalition done nothing in this budget to ease escalating cost-of-living pressures, they would have been belted politically.

This regional spend is north of $20bn over the medium term. I think the technical term for that is happy days on the Wombat Trail.

Given that this budget is very obviously political, and in Coalition terms, measurably transactional, Frydenberg and Morrison will insist they are about more than surviving an election contest.

In net terms, the outlay on Redspice over the next four years is actually $588.7m, not $9.9bn. Do remember that over the coming weeks, when Peter Dutton breaks out his loudhailer and throws down tests of patriotism out on the hustings.

Speaking of loudhailers, the 2022 election contest is now in sight. It could be days away. It could be a couple of weeks away. But it is close enough now to be real.

That effort succeeded.

But Anthony Albanese, ahead in the polls, and in small target mode, seems unlikely to adopt the Rudd playbook.

Safe, yes, but not entirely risk free.

Given that there is palpable disenchantment out in voter land, and given that the prime minister is working around the clock to convince people to stick with the devil they know in uncertain times, safe politics does raise one question.

Will Albanese present as sufficiently different from Morrison to be trusted by voters to chart a new course for Australia?