Budget 2017: Audrey Young's view - Something for everyone means it's election year

Steven Joyce has a good sense of humour.

We know that because when he said his first Budget would not be a lolly scramble and would not be designed for the election he was clearly kidding.

He was kidding to the tune of $6 billion over four years.

That is how much the centrepiece of the Budget, the family incomes package, will be paid out, mainly to workers, over the next four years.

Even the low-income single people whose independent earner tax credit has been cut will have that made up by tax relief in the raising of tax thresholds.

It has been seven years since any changes to the tax system was made.

Starting at the low end means everyone gets something.

It is an election year Budget because almost every household gets something.

Some of the increases are huge especially in the accommodation supplement.

That reflects the biggest failure of the Government, in failing to control housing cost.

This Budget puts far greater weight on infrastructure spending than previous ones, although that was foreshadowed in December when Bill English was still Finance Minister.

Joyce's future plans to make restraint a permanent fixture of a National Government are evident in his move to get the Productivity Commission to investigate the productivity of the core public service.