Treasurer Scott Morrison has called on the opposition to pass more than $6 billion in savings measures contained within its budget costings submitted to the Parliamentary Budget Office prior to the election, as the first shots were fired in the gathering legislative battle facing the Turnbull government.
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Mr Morrison says some of the measures counted as savings by Labor have been announced but others were included quietly in PBO submission to help its package add up.
And he said in that circumstance, there was now no scope for Labor to equivocate. "If they have counted these savings, they must vote to pass them when presented to the Parliament," he told Fairfax Media.
He said there could be "no excuses and no delays" in relation to curbs on generous superannuation tax concessions and the cessation of carbon tax compensation for new welfare recipients from September.
"Labor must support these savings measures, at the very least, as they included them in their own figures. To do otherwise would be a clear broken promise."
However, Labor is likely to argue that key differences in its proposed super changes mean the two sides are talking about different things.
The full independent costings of the major parties' election campaign commitments have shown the government's policies would see a $1.1 billion improvement in the budget bottom line over four years and $2.9 billion after 10 years.
In contrast, the PBO figures predict Labor's full platform would leave the budget $16.6 billion worse off over four years but would "significantly improve" the budget after a decade, to the tune of $19.6 billion.
Mr Morrison believes that points to trouble for Australia's triple-A credit rating, explaining that, all other things being equal, international credit rating agencies will inevitably focus on the four-year outlook, favouring fiscal discipline in the short-term over longer-term aspirations.
"Recent comments by Standard & Poor's put the Parliament and the government on notice regarding the importance of supporting budget repair," Mr Morrison said in a joint statement with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
"The risk of a rating downgrade remains live and cannot be dismissed if budget savings are not passed or if there are new negative impacts on the budget that hit our revenues. As a result the government is focussed on taking the action needed to keep our budget repair plan on track."
He said four years was "the window in which we have to get things under control" because "waiting five or seven years is a big gamble to take".
The PBO report reveals no "black holes" and is largely consistent with the costings released by the parties during the campaign.
Labor's proposal of not proceeding with the Coalition's "big company tax cuts" – instead limiting the tax relief to small businesses – would save $14.2 billion by 2026-27.
Retaining the temporary deficit repair levy on high-income earners would garner another $2.7 billion a year by 2026-27.
Whereas unfreezing the Medicare Benefits Schedule rebate would cost $2.4 billion over the next four years.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen and finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said Friday's costings back up Labor's "plan to responsibly repair the budget".
"Labor's credible plan for budget repair is in stark contrast the Turnbull government's approach," they said.
"Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison are irresponsibly giving away $50 billion in a tax cut for big business, all while smashing household budgets and cutting from essential services like schools, hospitals and Medicare."
Many of the Coalition's signature policies and large savings measures may need modification if they are going to make it past the Senate's largest ever crossbench.
With Fergus Hunter
