In Tuesday's budget, Treasurer Wayne Swan listed a line item of $463.9 million as ''decisions taken but not yet announced''.
Deloitte Access Economics director Chris Richardson said Australians should expect to see the money spent on a range of pork-barrelling campaign announcements.
''Yes it is a war chest, and they're holding back a bit of money here that will be announced before the election,'' he said.
In last year's budget papers, the same line item amounted to $119.4 million. Under questioning, Mr Swan denied it was an election war chest and said there were reasons the money was listed that way.
''Some of them can be commercial matters in confidence,'' he said. ''That's not a large amount of money in terms of decisions taken and not announced.''
Mr Swan's office subsequently suggested the measures could include defence contracts and other matters under negotiation.
But Mr Richardson said the money would be earmarked mostly for announcements designed to help the government retain office.
He said while some of what Mr Swan was saying about commercial in confidence matters could be true, much of the money would likely be targeted for pre-election spending. ''That money will get spent where the electoral margin is at its tightest.''
Another independent economic forecaster, Macroeconomics, agreed the explanation for ''decisions taken but not yet announced'' was simple.
''That's election spending,'' said Macroeconomics budget and forecasting director Stephen Anthony.
Mr Richardson said election spending would exceed half a billion dollars, but won't reach the ''stunning amounts'' of money thrown at the 2007 election.
However, he warned the spending would need to be announced before the government entered caretaker mode or ''technically the Coalition can spend that money too''.
The Coalition's spokesman for scrutiny and government waste, Jamie Briggs, said the amount was suspiciously high.
''It does seem a lot of money still to be spent so close to the end of the financial year. We will be looking at this very closely and we're not ruling out it being a war chest,'' he said.
''Contingency funds exist, but this seems very convenient and we don't trust Labor on it.''
The government has already been accused of using the budget to pork-barrel in the electorates of key independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott.
Mr Windsor's New England electorate got $540,000 for three sporting and community projects. Mr Oakeshott's Lyne electorate got $412,000 for three youth, community and cultural projects.
Meanwhile, government ministers and MPs are on the warpath this weekend over Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's pledge to defer the legislated increase in the superannuation guarantee from 9 to 12 per cent.
Cabinet minister Anthony Albanese said the Coalition's plan to delay by two years the increase was a ''sneak peek of the vicious cuts to the bone'' it had in store for Australians.
''Mr Abbott has said himself that he believes compulsory superannuation is a con job, so it is little wonder that he's made this appalling commitment,'' Mr Albanese said.
What else is the government hiding?
The government is on an assault of the public's privacy, to collect every piece of information on everyone possible, yet it hides a lot of information from the public.
The masses are technically the employers of the people in governance through the taxes that pay for the politicians salaries and over generous superannuation.
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