Abbott - perhaps out of loyalty, perhaps calculating his own fortunes were tied indissolubly to Hockey's - has resisted mounting calls to sack him.
But with the polls moving gently in the Prime Minister's favour and the next election looming as early as August next year, he plainly realised he could not risk more Hockey gaffes. The Treasurer had to be limited to a walk-on part in his own Budget.
That has resulted in farcical scenes such as a TV interview on Sunday in which Hockey repeatedly declined to comment on the Budget's centrepiece, a A$3.5 billion ($3.7 billion) childcare package, although the details featured on the front pages of the day's newspapers, clearly with official approval.
The only conclusion to be drawn was that Hockey had been given firm instructions to keep quiet.
As for the Budget itself, the Government has been saying for months it will be very different from last year's, which was condemned as grossly unfair in its targeting of low and middle-income earners, seniors and the unemployed.
There are likely to be few surprises today, with the main ingredients spooned out in advance via ministerial announcements or selected leaks.
Attempts to curb annual rises in the old-age pension have been dropped. So have proposals to charge people for visiting a GP and to make young unemployed people wait six months before receiving benefits.
Instead, wealthier pensioners will face a more stringent asset test. Drug companies will be paid less money for medications listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Small businesses are to get a tax cut. Rural Australia will get an injection of cash for infrastructure and employment.
But the key Budget measure, the one which the Government hopes will help boost its fortunes, is the childcare package unveiled by Abbott and Morrison on Sunday.
It will replace a complicated set of childcare benefits and rebates with one simple payment linked to the number of hours parents work.
While it has been widely welcomed, childcare organisations and children's groups have criticised a cut in subsidies to non-working parents.
One Liberal-National Party federal Senator, Matt Canavan, said yesterday he was "deeply concerned about the growing divide between the costs of stay-at-home parenting and the advantages that flow to parents who decide to put their kids in childcare".
And while Abbott may have silenced Hockey before the Budget, he's still capable of putting his foot in his own mouth. Defending an earnings threshhold in the childcare package, he described A$185,000 as "not especially high" in a city such as Sydney.
In fact, full-time Australian workers earning that sum are, like Abbott himself, in the top 6 per cent.
The last Budget's legacy
Key controversial measures from the 2014/15 Budget are unresolved, altered or ditched. About A$30 billion of measures are stuck in the Senate from last year.
GP co-payment: The proposal to charge a compulsory A$7 co-payment for visiting the doctor met with widespread disapproval. Revenue from the so-called GP tax was to go into a medical research fund. It was subsequently revised to a A$5 voluntary co-payment in December. In January, new Health Minister Sussan Ley scrapped plans to reduce the rebate for short GP visits and in March she ditched the whole idea of a co-payment. She is now undertaking a review of the whole Medicare benefits system.
Aged pension: The proposal to index pension increases to the CPI only, rather than a range of indicators such as the average male wage, drew a hostile response and has yet to pass the House of Representatives. The Government is tightening access to the age pension for wealthy retirees and dropping the indexation proposal.
Pension age: A proposal to lift the pension eligibility age to 70 from 67 by 2035 also remains stuck in the Lower House.
Unemployed under-30s: The Government proposed a six-month wait for the dole for under-30s. There were some indications late in 2014 that the waiting period would be pared back to three months or even one, following New Zealand's model. Budget leaks suggest this could be scrapped altogether.
Higher education reforms: The Budget proposed deregulation of university fees, indexation on student loans, expanding government funding to private providers and degrees below bachelor level, cutting per-student funding level by an average 20 per cent and scrapping vocational education and training loan fees. In December, the A$3.2 billion saving in loan indexation was dropped. An offer to split legislation was waylaid by the defeat of the entire package for a second time in the Senate.
Fuel excise indexation: The reintroduction of twice-yearly fuel excise indexation, after being frozen since 2001, proved more controversial than its cost to motorists warranted. While adding just an initial A40c to the average household weekly petrol bill, Treasurer Joe Hockey made a major gaffe by saying it wouldn't affect poor families because they don't drive cars. He later apologised. The Government bypassed the Senate to introduce the measure by regulation, but it will have to return to the Upper House to be legislated. If it is rejected, the Government will have to return A$2.2 billion to oil companies.
State hospitals and schools funding: There was a line in the Budget paper's overview about the future funding of state schools and public hospitals. It will index school funding from 2018 and hospitals from 2017/18, while removing funding guarantees for public hospitals. "These measures will achieve cumulative savings over A$80 billion by 2024/25," it said. Faced with hostile state Premiers, the Government later explained the money promised by Labor was never there in the first place. Is it a saving then? The plan remains under discussion.
Paid parental leave scheme: Having taken it to two elections, Prime Minister Tony Abbott finally bit the bullet and ditched his signature paid parental leave scheme, which was seen as overly generous and unnecessarily paid rich people to have babies. The scheme was never detailed, but funding was held in the Budget's contingency reserve, which will now go towards a flagged family package.
- additional reporting AAP
