Treasurer Scott Morrison has delivered a brilliant, election-winning budget that could be a game-changer by tapping into deep community discontent with political weasel-words that for a decade have overpromised and undelivered, eroding trust in our leaders.

Australians no longer seem willing to be suckered by "cash splashes" and white elephants such as the NBN, knowing that the explosion in government debt from $53 billion in 2007 to $533 billion today to underwrite this largesse has to be repaid. And the most likely culprits are higher taxes and inferior services.