Treasurer Scott Morrison has given a strong indication the coalition won't reveal its tax reform plans until close to the election later in the year.
The Labor opposition fears voters won't be allowed much time to digest tax changes, including a possible rise in the GST rate.
Mr Morrison, in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, said the government would run full term, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had previously indicated.
He added: "We are looking at changes in our tax system as we run into an election later this year."
The changes would focus on reducing personal income tax and, "to the extent that is possible", cutting company tax.
An early election was off the cards because of the need to address economic volatility caused largely by the slowdown in China.
There was no point in an election until economic reform was rolled out and there was a "better level of sentiment", Mr Morrison said.
Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh said the government needed to come clean on its economic strategy well before the poll.
"It's important for a government to have a clear economic strategy, to be absolutely crystal clear about what it will do to deal with risks ahead," Dr Leigh told ABC radio.
"This government, while it promised a tax white paper in the first two years, hasn't delivered and now seems to be holding off tax reform until right up to the election."
Labor leader Bill Shorten told reporters in Darwin if Mr Turnbull wanted to restore confidence he should come clean on the GST proposal.
Mr Turnbull made a brief stopover in Hawaii on his way back to Australia after his first White House meeting with US President Barack Obama.
He had breakfast with the commander of the US Pacific fleet Admiral Harry Harris and inspected a US warship on Pearl Harbour.
Back home, one of his ministers, Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos, has reportedly been cleared by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Senator Sinodinos declined to comment for legal reasons on the report that ICAC had found no wrongdoing over donations to the Liberal Party by Australian Water Holdings, of which he was deputy chairman.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Senator Sinodinos - who previously stood aside as assistant treasurer while ICAC investigated - was only ever questioned and took part in the inquiry as a witness.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the matter showed why it was necessary to have a national integrity commission.
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