In a budget seemingly aimed at annoying everyone, Ms Giddings made cuts in the politically sacrosanct "teachers, police and nurses" area.

The cuts added up to $1.4 billion over the next four years, but Ms Giddings still faces a battle to keep spending under control.

Consolidated Fund expenditure was meant to be $4.5 billion in the 2010-11 financial year.

The most recent estimate showed it had blown out to $4.987 billion - almost half a billion more than predicted.

That was on top of overspends of more than $200 million and $330 million in the previous two years.

Ms Giddings laid down a stern warning to her department heads, telling them there was no money left to cover for any waste.

"It's time for agencies to understand that the budget they've got is the budget they've got," she said.

However, while she said she would be strong on accountability, there were no details on how spending would be kept in line with the budget.

Also light on the details were the departmental plans of how the planned savings would be achieved.

Some departments revealed where the savings were coming from, but details from the Health Department were still light on.

They will be dictated in part by the national health reforms.

How the departments were meant to find the equivalent of 1700 jobs worth of savings was left to them.

Yesterday's budget clearly harked back to former treasurer Michael Aird's 2009 budget, when he predicted three years of gloom amid job cuts.

However, Mr Aird and former premier David Bartlett did not stick to their guns and let the budget blow out when the economy improved.

Ms Giddings said she expected to see about 600 people move on in the first year.

She said the Police Department's cut of up to 100 positions would be mainly achieved through natural attrition.