Morrison heralds first budget, Shorten predicts it will be mediocre

Bill Shorten predicts Scott Morrison’s first budget will be mediocre and favour the big end of town.

Bill Shorten predicts the government’s budget will be mediocre.

Bill Shorten has told his colleagues they might be underdogs but Labor deserves to win the July 2 election.

The opposition leader claimed there was no hubris in that statement because Labor had always fought to offer the best plan for Australia’s future.

Mr Shorten predicts the government’s budget, to be delivered on Tuesday, will be mediocre and favour the big end of town.

“For the last two caucus meetings I’ve spoken about how we can win,” he told what is likely the final meeting of Labor MPs and senators before the poll.

“Today I want to say to you that arguably with our policies we deserve to win.”

The rules of engagement for the mammoth eight-week campaign would be set this week, Mr Shorten said.

Labor had established it was united and done more policy work than many modern oppositions because it was determined to be a strong alternative government for Australia.

Mr Shorten welcomed that latest caucus member Pat Dodson - who was sworn into the Senate on Monday - and thanked the 10 opposition MPs retiring at the election.

“There is no person in this caucus in the last three years who I wish I could swap away,” he said.

Budget ‘free of union accounting’

Treasurer Scott Morrison has heralded his first budget as an important day for all Australians.

Ahead of its release on Tuesday, Mr Morrison insisted his first budget will be a national economic plan for the country with a focus on jobs and growth.

“Sweeteners won’t change the circumstances for the people who are facing difficult times in our economy,” he told reporters as he arrived at Parliament House.

Mr Morrison said the difference between the government and opposition was Labor’s intention to increase taxes to chase higher levels of spending.

He foreshadowed revenue-raising measures to crack down on multinational tax avoidance and closing off generous superannuation concessions on high-income earners.

“We’ll reinvest that back into the productive capacity of our country by ensuring a lower tax burden, particularly for small and medium sized businesses, to ensure we continue to drive growth,” he said.

“It’s real money that will go to real schools and real students, not the sort of phony accounting we saw in the union movement that Labor seems to be modelling their approach on.” He insisted the budget will include a clear path towards balanced books.

“You don’t get to a budget balance and be able to sustain it by just ramping up taxes and ramping up spending,” he said.

AAP