It is to be released under the watchful eye of the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, the former treasurer who will be claiming the credit, rightly or wrongly, for the surplus that will likely be its centrepiece.

Morrison took over from Joe Hockey whose 2014 post-election "lifters, not leaners" budget was widely viewed as draconian and a deadweight around the government's neck for months.

That is not a problem Frydenberg is going to have tonight. His brief is to use that surplus, and the big spending it allows, to refocus the pre-poll agenda on economic management.

The Coalition must move the national debate on from gun control, energy reform - or the lack thereof, environment policy, and tensions between the coalition parties.

The budget itself has been brought forward by a month so the government can go to the polls in May and, as a result, is not so much an economic road map as the defacto launch of Morrison's election campaign.

While many pundits are predicting he will visit Yarralumla over the weekend others have speculated he could go as early as Friday afternoon, less than 24-hours after Bill Shorten's budget response.

This makes a certain kind of sense given it is in the government's interest to deny the opposition as much oxygen as it can in the weeks ahead.

While, as is usually the case, many of the key announcements - including billions of extra dollars for roads and transport infrastructure in key seats, a one-off cash handout of $285 million to help low income earners pay their power bills and a $3.5 billion make-up payment to the ailing National Disability Insurance Scheme, there will be plenty more where that came from tonight.

While Shorten is pinning his hopes on a "living wage" which would assist the lowest paid workers, Morrison and his protege are planning to spend up big on tax relief, an initiative that will appeal to middle-income earners, not just those on the lowest rungs of the wages ladder.

It is another classic example of what Alexis de Tocqueville described as bribing the public with the public's money.

Labor, which is not averse to a good cash splash itself when the opportunity affords itself, has already indicated it won't oppose the one-off power bill supplement.

This could be read as tacit recognition by both sides of politics that the Australian economy is treading water and an injection of economic stimulus is needed.

In the meantime Canberrans could be excused for looking for any suggestion that more ACT public service jobs are to be offered up as bribes, masquerading as decentralisation, to pork barrel regional electorates.

The irony is that regardless of who wins, the odds are we will see a mini-budget before the year's end.

What we will be presented with tonight is the government's election pitch, to be followed in the coming weeks with the promises of more largesse. Make no mistake, the election campaign starts tonight.