It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before. In other words, it’s business as usual in Australian politics – business as usual as it has been for the past 10 years.

Tonight Josh Frydenberg went through the motions of handing down a budget, but his main effort was on launching an election campaign.

Scott Morrison told the Coalition party room this morning that we’ll vote on either May 11, 18 or 25.

Let’s hope he and his Treasurer have paid a little more attention to the budget figures than election dates.

May 25 is out – and has been since last year – as the Australian Electoral Commission has advised it might not be able to produce a Senate result by July 1, the date newly elected and returned Senators take up their seats from.

Until 2004, five-week campaigns had become the standard.

The smart money has to be that the Prime Minister will make the short drive out to Yarralumla this weekend and that we’ll vote on May 11 – which means he wants the electorate listening now.

The Easter break, school holidays that, depending on where you are, mean you’ll have the little darlings on your hands for a fortnight beginning either April 8 or 15, along with Anzac Day, effectively means there will only be three weeks to campaign – next week and the 11 days from April 23, Easter Tuesday, when prepoll and postal voting has already begun.

Josh Frydenberg has got his string of surpluses and tax cuts out tonight.

They’re good headline stories, particularly given how Flat White has revealed this week that the surpluses have been build on a near doubling of the tax take and an increase in net government debt from just under six per cent of GDP to close to a quarter over the past decade.

They’re be less time to canvass those awkward details – particularly given that Labour hasn’t had much of a record in these areas other than Peter Walsh’s few years as finance minister.

No, it’s on to the polls. The remaining two days of parliament will be noisy, but scarcely noteworthy.

The government has set its campaign compass. It’s full steam ahead to May 11.

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