The Turnbull government is relying on the success of a previous omnibus bill to have another crack at bundling up a rag-tag of unpopular measures and pushing them through parliament.
Last year it managed to get through some $6 billion of savings measures in a similar bill that passed with the help of Labor, even though it contained measures previously opposed by the opposition.
The latest version contains no less than 18 measures - ranging from cuts to family tax benefits and stopping pension payments for those travelling abroad for more than six weeks to additional family payments and allowing the unemployed to work farms without affecting dole payments.
The package, introduced to parliament on Wednesday, expands government-paid parental leave to 20 weeks but prevents double-dipping by parents on employer schemes, while boosting funding for child care.
"It is the case that we've had to cut our cloth and the savings are less than we would've hoped for in the original configuration of this policy," Social Services Minister Christain Porter told reporters in Canberra.
"But we have always said from the outset that if you're going to have wide ranging, critical reform to child care, it has to be paid for."
Signs are the the Senate crossbench will support the deal even if Labor decides to oppose many of the measures.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten used parliament to attack the government over family benefits cuts he said would make one million families worse off.
He said it came at a time when the government wanted to give a $50 billion handout in the form of tax cuts to big business.
A Parliamentary Budget Office analysis calculated the budget is carrying $8.5 billion worth of unlegislated bills over the next four nears, which would balloon to $42.8 billion over the next decade if left in the pending tray.
Avid budget watcher, economist Chris Richardson, said the omnibus bill was trying to peg some of that back, but to do that, the government has given more away as a compromise.
"Bottom line, it will be really hard to get back to surplus, full stop," Mr Richardson told ABC television.
The budget is projected to be back in balance by 2021.
He described the politics of budget repair as "diabolical".
"Every time somebody proposes something, you get so many people jumping up and down, that it either doesn't happen or it's so watered down by the time that it does happen, it doesn't particularly contribute to budget repair," he said.
