Joe Hockey is right to argue the budget needs to be placed on a more sustainable footing over the long term. It is also correct that most of the budget has already passed through the Parliament.

But that's not the point. About $40 billion in structural savings including the $7 GP co-payment, changes to welfare, higher education, other social security measures and the restarting of fuel excise indexation (to say nothing of the mining tax and its associated spending measures) are outstanding.

But even as Hockey engages in belated crossbench diplomacy, criss-crossing the country for the past fortnight, it's hard to escape the feeling that it may be too little, too late. Public debate on measures that carry the imprimatur of the Treasurer may be lost. If anything, the fallout from the budget has worsened as the weeks have passed.

Crossbench positions have hardened. Crucial time was lost when Hockey took a holiday in the first sitting week of the new Senate.

Hockey's friends argue the focus of that first week was always going to be the carbon tax, but it's hard not to wonder if an extra meeting or three might have helped.

Now, even as Hockey warns ''don't count you chickens'', his colleagues are conceding compromise will come. Education Minister Christopher Pyne has signalled that changes to the education package are possible and Health Minister Peter Dutton is working on the design of the GP co-payment.

As John Howard observed in June, to be convinced about the need for reform Australians ''want to be satisfied that it's fundamentally fair''. Thus far, the Treasurer has not made the case.

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