Frydenberg ducked a direct answer to almost every question. He looked ridiculous claiming that "we are back in the black" this financial year when we clearly are still in deficit and the wafer-thin surplus in 2019/20 is only a forecast. His unwillingness to admit the extent to which our national debt had increased under the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison LNP governments was comical.

Of course, there is "plenty to see here". The government's electoral strategy based on the budget is to exploit the perception that they are better economic managers. The "back in black" slogan is fundamental to this. Unfortunately for it, this is old politics - it will no longer be the key electoral differentiator.

The government's economic narrative that "the good times are rolling on" is not resonating with the lived experience of an increasing majority of voters, who are struggling, day in, day out, to meet the seemingly ever increasing costs of living, while their wages are flatlining, their debt is at record levels, they have run down their savings, and their house prices are falling.

Moreover, after nearly 30 years without a recession, having survived three major crises - the Asian crisis, the "tech crisis", and the global financial crisis, under governments of both persuasions, voters have come to expect that which ever party is in government it will run the economy pretty well. Indeed, voters are now almost taking effective economic management for granted.

Frydenberg looked equally shifty and arrogant on climate, government spending on self-interested advertising, Christmas Island, Adani, assistance to single mums and other low-income earners - the lot!

Yet, after cost of living, issues such as climate and Adani are likely to dominate the next election, and be defining. The government has got itself into a real pickle on climate. In attempting to attack Shorten on his support for a more ambitious emissions reduction target and electric vehicles it has already skewered itself.

For example, the feasibility study in support of a second electricity interconnect to Tasmania reveals that the project is only viable if the government accelerates the closure of coal-fired power stations, effectively moving towards an emissions reduction target of 45 to 50 per cent by 2030 - echoes of Shorten.

Similarly, the government has several strong statements on the record supporting the transition to electric vehicles, and to achieve its objectives for emissions reductions in the transport sector, as admitted in Senate estimates this week, it will require some 25 to 50 per cent of vehicles to be electric by 2030 - again echoes of Shorten.

Of course, more broadly the government, and ex-energy minister Frydenberg, in particular, look ridiculous trying to keep a foot on both sides of the coal-renewables debate, hoping to send opposite messages to different constituencies, in different seats. The Nationals are most concerned about Queensland and other regional seats, but will this policy two-step really help if the party has basically lost contact with its voters on other "bread and butter" issues such as water and regional development?

Not only is it detrimental to good government and the national interest that politics has become an opportunistic, short-term game of point scoring and blame shifting, indulgent, and mostly negative, but our political masters now seem to have lost their moral compass.

Their end game is simply winning at all costs, even at the expense of decency, compassion, and principle.

Rather than present and debate substantive policy, the focus is increasingly on delivering the clever sound bite, or slogan, or performing some mostly silly, exaggerated, stunt. Key issues and challenges are mostly kicked down the road, rather than addressed or solved, sometimes left for the next generation to deal with.

It should therefore come as no surprise that voters are tuning out, feeling neglected, disenfranchised, or taken for granted, especially by the two major parties. Recent polling suggests that some 25 per cent of voters will favour minor parties and independents at the next election, with a significant group of around 20 per cent pre-polling rather than subjecting themselves to the campaign.

Moreover, it is instructive that both Morrison and Shorten have sustained net negative satisfaction ratings in the polls - neither really liked or trusted.

Where is the morality in what Morrison has done by opening and now shutting the Christmas Island Detention Centre, wasting more than $180 million in the process - an expensive and indefensible stunt to run a "fear" campaign in response to the recent Medevac legislation.

What happened to the hordes of refugees that were to flood our shores? Isn't it true that only one from Manus/Nauru has sought medical attention, and that had to be delivered on the mainland?

Voters want honesty, authenticity, transparency, and policy outcomes. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to get it in a campaign that promises to be one of the dirtiest and most dishonest yet - with everything still to see.

John Hewson is a professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, and a former Liberal opposition leader.