That’s how Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor John Hicks from the School of Accounting and Finance described the federal budget.

“It’s the budget we expected we would get, the government needed to stimulate the economy and not send it into recession,” Professor Hicks said.

“They wanted to avoid doing anything that would adversely affect growth.”

He said conditions meant there wasn’t much the government needed to do to maintain positive growth.

“The big driver is the political benefit that the government can get from it. They’re trying to win votes,” Professor Hicks said.

“The banking sector will get a tax, but that’s political, there’s no economic sense to apply it only to banks. Any industry which gets a tax increase will past it onto consumers.”

Professor Hicks said infrastructure projects are expected to deliver benefits for regions where they’re based, but warned the Western Sydney Airport could lead to regional airlines being pushed to the second airport.

“Regional airlines may land there rather than Kingsford Smith Airport. It adds another hour to the journey for regional residents,” he said.

Professor Hicks said Commonwealth had little room to move to address the deficit this year, but expected surpluses to be achievable.

He said the United States government’s policy of increasing spending and cutting taxes could support growth elsewhere.

“We can benefit from that set of expansionary policy through our exports. There’s signs of growth right around the world at the moment.”