Hockey won't bring down mini-budget

Joe Hockey won't deliver a mini-budget when he updates the government's books next month.

The treasurer is more focused on maintaining economic momentum during the Christmas and new year period than introducing more cuts in his mid-year budget review.

"We are not going to go down the path of trying to make up lost ground immediately," Mr Hockey told 5AA radio in Adelaide on Tuesday.

"But sooner or later, the Labor party needs to understand that they can't keep whingeing about spending more money whilst we fail to get the revenue."

His comments came as an analysis by Canberra-based forecaster Macroeconomics estimated that weak commodity prices and company profits, rising unemployment and sluggish wages growth could wipe $10 billion of this year's budget and produce a $51 billion shortfall over the forward estimates.

Mr Hockey says the "figure is wrong".

But he concedes iron ore prices are 30 per cent to 40 per cent lower than forecast, which has a direct impact on the budget bottom lime.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen reminded Mr Hockey that in opposition he would "huff and puff" and say there was some sort of scandal when Labor was forced to write down revenues.

He says the treasurer should not hide the mid-year budget review until the week before Christmas, but come clean and tell Australians what further cuts he has in store.

"If the treasurer really cares about consumer confidence ... he can drop the unfair cuts in his budget," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney.

Mr Hockey has said the budget update will be released in mid-December to take in the latest economic growth figures in the national accounts on December 3.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence gauge edged up 0.2 per cent in the past week.

ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan said while it was encouraging to see confidence trending higher, the pace of improvement was slightly disappointing.

There was better news among businesses, where trading conditions soared to their highest level since early 2008.

The National Australia Bank survey posted a 12-point rise in its conditions index for October, the largest monthly gain since the report began in 1998.

However, NAB chief economist Alan Oster was cautious about the sustainability of such strength given business confidence slipped to its lowest level since the pre-election jump in mid-2013.