As dawn broke over Australia's new federal budget on Wednesday, it found some interest groups reeling at the new and straitened circumstances under which they will henceforth be obliged to live.

Among the hardest hit are firebrand conservative columnists, whose crucial supply of rant fuel has been cut off abruptly by the newly released national fiscal blueprint.

"No surprises" they claimed... And as far as I am concerned there were no surprises. I knew these characters were lying to be elected and I knew the flow of lies would not stop ever after. 

It's only for those "swinging" voters who believed these dodgy farting politicians, that I feel sorry for. Yes, swingers, you were duped. You were bullshitted to. You were taken for a ride. You were being pissed on. You wuz robbed.

I knew they would.

In politics one of the cheapest and most cynical things you can do is to stand far away from the scene of the crime – to leave the country while your deputy delivers bad news, to let underlings do the sackings, to pretend core responsibilities have nothing to do with you.

Forget inflation; forget the government bond rate. Treasurer Joe Hockey on Thursday morning injected a new price measure into the political lexicon: the Middy Exchange Rate (MER).

Tony Abbott is dishonest 

A political staffer who set up the alleged NSW Liberal Party slush fund Eightbyfive wrote a false corruption complaint against senior public servants under an assumed identity, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has heard.

Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer has called on the government to take its harsher budget measures to an election.

He declared the GP co-payment and pension changes were not matters for negotiation and there was no chance his party would support them.

In an interview with ABC TV on Wednesday, Mr Palmer also predicted that the Prime Minister would not call an election if he could not pass his budget measures.

For Prime Minister Tony Abbott, his was not so much a budget as a settling of old scores.

During one of a raft of breakfast television appearances, on the Ten network's Wake Up, Mr Abbott was confronted by an elderly woman, named only as Vilma, furious about changes to the age pension, who responded to his explanations on broken promises with: ''I have never heard such rubbish in all my life.''

‘‘Why don't you leave the pensioners alone? If we pull the belt any tighter we’re going to choke to death,’’ Vilma said. ''Why are you picking on me?

‘‘I challenge you: come out and meet some of the pensioners, they’ll tell you a little thing or two.’’

Is 20 billion bucks for medical research going to cure my major disease — cynicism?

I repeat: Is 20 billion bucks for medical research going to cure my major disease — cynicism?

It’s difficult to find words to adequately describe the spectacle of the Abbott government setting about hiking income taxes and fuel excise in its first budget. “Beyond belief,” as one of the prime minister’s colleagues quipped, comes close.

From the man who promised no new taxes, and argued that “no country has ever taxed its way to prosperity,” here come the new taxes.