Ready, steady, vote.

This article discusses how Australia's federal budget was crafted for gain in the upcoming elections. WITH an election due in a few months, the latest budget from Peter Costello, Australia's treasurer (finance minister), was fairly brazenly designed to win a fourth term for the conservative coalition government led by John Howard. By the time Mr Costello actually delivered it in Parliament on May 11th, so much had been leaked there were few surprises left--except, perhaps, the precise scale of the budget's new largesse: a package worth A$37 billion ($26 billion) over the next five years by a government that has staked its credentials over the past eight years on a record of fiscal restraint. Middle-income families, working mothers and retirees, all among the swinging voters who could decide the election, were showered with payments. With a budget cash surplus of only A$2.4 billion, halved from the previous year, Mr Costello has left Mr Latham little room for promises to match his own pre-election spending spree. If so, Mr Costello's budget largesse could be designed to cushion the pain for many in middle Australia who have saddled themselves with debt through buying second and third properties as investments.