Labor like a 'pimply teenager' on budget

Treasurer Scott Morrison and Labor have traded insults over budget repair during a heated parliamentary question time.

Australia's Treasurer Scott Morrison

Treasurer Scott Morrison and Labor have traded insults over budget repair during question time. (AAP)

Treasurer Scott Morrison has likened Labor's approach to budget management to a "pimply teenager" sitting in the basement trolling a Twitter account.

"They are to budget management debates what a Twitter troll is to public policy in this country ... seeking to undermine and undercut the Australian taxpayer," Mr Morrison told MPs during heated question time exchanges.

The government was getting on with the job of repairing the budget, achieving $4 billion of savings out of the $6 billion proposed under its latest social services omnibus bill.

That was despite Labor opposition, which was working against the budget every single day of their existence.

Opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said the treasurer was "incompetent and hopelessly out of his depth" with the budget deficit at $37 billion having tripled since the coalition came to power.

But Mr Morrison pointed out Dr Chalmers used to work for former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan who was supposed to have delivered "four surpluses".

"I've been looking for those surpluses. They weren't there, Swanny. I don't know where you left them. I looked in the cupboard," Mr Morrison told a noisy chamber.


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Source: AAP


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