The federal government is continuing its attack on Labor's budget blow out, claiming the party must be stopped from sneaking into government without showing how they'll pay for spending.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has defended his government's budget repair job, claiming credit for $85 billion in legislated improvements to the nation's balance sheet.
In a speech to the Sydney Institute on Monday, Senator Cormann reinforced the government's focus on budget repair, two weeks after Malcolm Turnbull toppled ousted prime minister Tony Abbott.
He took a dig at Labor spending and the opposition's attempts to block saving measures in the parliament.
"This makes Labor's attempt to blame the coalition for continuing deficits and growing levels of debt so laughable," he told the institute.
"We can't allow any alternative Labor contender to try and sneak into the highest office of the land ... without properly explaining where the money for all their promises is meant to be coming from."
The government inherited a budget position that rapidly deteriorated by $3 billion per week in the 11 weeks after Labor's last budget.
"(That) did not just stop magically on election day," he said.
The blow out was caused by Labor's "overly optimistic and wildly inaccurate" revenue forecasts and locked federal government expenditure that had not been paid for.
The speech comes after new figures released by the government show the budget could blow out by almost $60 billion under a Labor government thanks to blocked savings measures and spending commitments.
The government maintains Australia has a spending, not a revenue problem, and has aspirations to cut marginal tax rates.
Senator Cormann admits spending under the coalition is too high, and conceded there was "much, much more" work to do.
Cutting the size of government and shrinking the public service would not be enough.
"We will not be able to achieve a sustainable budget position without continuing structural reform of government program spending," Senator Cormann said.
More than 40 per cent of budget repair measures announced by the coalition but yet to be legislated are from the most recent budget.
The new-look government's first priority will be the families package, which has been the focus on negotiations with the Senate crossbench.
Earlier, Treasurer Scott Morrison accused Labor of wanting to hike taxes in order to spend more, while his government wanted to encourage people to work, save and invest.
"The tax system isn't there to meet the government's spending aspirations - it's there to unblock Australia's economic aspirations," he said.
Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen said the long term health of the budget relied on both cutting back spending and revenue raising.
"Mr Morrison has been in denial saying he can just cut his way to the future," he told reporters in Brisbane.
The government is committed to releasing the mid-year budget outlook statement on time in December, despite the change in prime minister and treasurer.
