The Coalition has made 800 policy decisions that will save the budget $221 billion by 2026-27, but there is "much more work to be done on budget repair", Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says.
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In a major speech to the Sydney Institute on Monday evening that set out the magnitude of the budget repair task still facing the government – and the nation – Senator Cormann challenged Labor to "step up to plate" and work with the Coalition to pass savings through Parliament.
Of the Finance Department's estimated $221 billion in medium-term savings, $26 billion of it would be made in the four years to 2020-21, while the remaining $195 billion would be realised from structural spending cuts that build over the decade, Senator Cormann said.
But more savings – including $6.5 billion contained in an omnibus savings bill that will be presented soon after Parliament returns next week – were needed to repair the budget and "we expect to receive bipartisan support", the Finance Minister said.
"The time for game playing is over," he said. "The election is behind us."
He said that, in his analysis, Labor had lost the 2016 election because "the Australian people decided they could not trust [it] with their money".
Labor's tactics during the 44th Parliament of fighting so many of the Coalition's proposed budget repair measures – in particular, in the hugely unpopular 2014 budget – had played well for Labor in the short term but hurt them in the campaign.
Now, with the government lacking a majority in the Senate, Labor could choose to work with the government in the new Parliament to repair the budget - or oppose savings measures at its political peril.
"At the conclusion of the last term of Parliament it got him [Mr Shorten] into a real fiscal pickle during the election campaign proper. Ultimately, that cost him the votes he needed to win," Senator Cormann said, referring to the fact Labor had forecast budget deficits that would be $16.5 billion larger over four years.
"For somebody who continues to aspire to be the next Australian prime minister, it is not good enough for Bill Shorten to try and keep hiding behind the Senate crossbench," he said.
Last week, Mr Shorten said the Coalition would have to give some ground on issues such as the company tax cut, and negotiate if it wanted to pass the $6.5 billion in savings in the omnibus bill.
"If he [the Prime Minister] just expects Labor to dance to his tune and ignore our values and ignore our priorities, well, he's got another thing coming," he said.
The omnibus savings bill contains 21 Coalition measures that Labor indicated during the campaign it would support, or consider supporting, to improve its alternative budget bottom line.
Labor may reverse course and not back a $1 billion cut to the renewable energy agency ARENA contained in the bill. Some in the ALP also want to backtrack and keep a cut to a clean energy supplement linked to the axed carbon tax, although at this stage it looks likely the ALP will back this cut.
Senator Cormann said that, in his mind, the real hero of the Hawke-Keating government had been finance minister Peter Walsh, who was notorious for opposing the spending plans of colleagues.
"What I would say to Labor is this: You can be the party of Peter Walsh, or the party of the 'spend-o-meter'."
Also on Monday, Treasurer Scott Morrison pushed back against government backbenchers who want the proposed lifetime cap on super contributions, introduced in the May budget, lifted from $500,000 to $1 million.
The Coalition has flagged the proposed cap – part of a larger package of super reforms contained in the budget – could rise to $750,000, but Mr Morrison said on Monday he would not countenance a $1 million cap.
"I'd find it a bit hard to look my kids in the eye and tell them that they've got to saddle a higher debt because someone who had a very big income wanted to pay less tax," he told radio station 2GB.
