The Albanese government has warned of “hard days to come” as it laid the groundwork for an agenda of tax increases and spending cuts with a federal budget that forecasts debt and deficit over the next decade to be worse than thought just six months ago.

Labor’s first budget, which Treasurer Jim Chalmers said “begins the hard yards of budget repair”, offered nothing new in the way of upfront cost-of-living relief other than the measures Labor took to the election such as cheaper childcare and prescription medicines.