Josh Frydenberg has without any explanation sneakily changed the way the Final Budget Outcome (FBO) numbers are presented to accentuate the size of Budget improvements in 2017-18.

For the first time, the FBO has been compared against the previous years Budget instead of against the most recent Budget figures.

The has led to the government exaggerating the Budget improvement by a staggering $11 billion compared to the standard comparison against this years Budget forecast.

If standard practice was followed, the FBO for 2017-18 of $10.1 billion would have been compared against this years Budget forecast for 2017-18 of $18 billion, not the $29 billion forecast in last years budget.

From todays FBO document:

The 2017-18 underlying cash deficit was $10.1 billion, an improvement of $19.3 billion compared with the estimate at the time of the 2017-18 Budget.

https://www.budget.gov.au/2017-18/content/fbo/download/02_Part_1.pdf (see page 2)

From last years FBO document:

The 201617 underlying cash deficit was $33.2 billion, an improvement of $4.4billion compared with the estimate at the time of the 201718 Budget.
https://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/fbo/download/02-Part-1.pdf (see page 2)

For the year prior:

The 201516 underlying cash deficit was $39.6 billion, an improvement of $340 million compared with the estimate at the time of the 201617 Budget.
https://www.budget.gov.au/2015-16/content/fbo/download/01_part_1.pdf (see page 2)

Normally, the FBO is presented as a comparison as the final financial year underlying cash balance number compared to the forecast for the same year contained in the most recent Budget.

This is what has occurred in previous Coalition FBO documents as well as during the last time Labor was in office.

Josh Frydenberg should be spending more time in the current round of Expenditure Review Committee meetings working out how hes going to pay for new spending commitments instead of working up a Budget presentation smoke and mirrors exercise.