The federal treasurer has again defended the Abbott government's first budget rejecting what he called "misguided" claims that it's unfair.
In a speech at the Sydney Institute, Joe Hockey once again expressed his support for cuts to government benefits and changes to higher education and health funding.
The government will this year spend $6000 on welfare, on average, for every person in the nation.
"Give that only around 45 per cent of the population pays income tax, the average taxpayer must pay more than twice this amount in tax to fund welfare expenditure," he said.
"The average working Australian .... is working over one month full time each year just to pay for the welfare of another Australia."
Mr Hockey questioned whether this was fair.
"It should not be taboo to question whether everyone is entitled to these payments," he said.
Some two per cent of taxpayers paid more than a quarter of all income tax.
"Maybe these taxpayers would argue that the tax system is already unfair," Mr Hockey said.
The Treasurer rejected claims that the budget signalled the demise of universal healthcare and free higher education saying both these systems had ended decades ago.
"Our welfare system is unsustainable in its current form and it is not well targeted to those who really need our assistance," he said.
He says the government is open to criticism and debate but has also stressed that he owed it to the community to set the facts straight.
''Criticism of our strategy has been political in nature and has drifted to 1970s class warfare lines, claiming the budget is 'unfair' or that the 'rich don't contribute enough'."
"Our duty is to help Australians to get to the starting line, while accepting that some will run faster than others," he said.
Watch Joe Hockey's full speech here:
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