Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says the costings of large number of the coalition's policies are still to be finalised because the federal government's numbers kept changing.
The coalition had submitted about 200 policies to the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) for assessment before the election date was announced.
Mr Hockey now says the PBO is re-costing them to take into account the numbers in government's August 2 economic update statement and August 13 Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
"There is a great deal of work to be done," he told reporters in Launceston, Tasmania, on Thursday.
He restated the coalition would release its full costings before the September 7 poll.
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"If the whole election is going to be about costings, rather than about policies ... then I think everyone is going to bore the Australian people to death, and we don't want to do that," Mr Hockey said.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he was right to say Australia was facing a "budget emergency" when Labor's economic statement showed revenue had gone backwards by $30 billion between May and August.
Mr Abbott was asked if he would adopt Labor's planned increase to the tobacco excise.
"Given that this is a budget emergency we are going to be very reluctant to reject measures, even measures such as this which we don't like," he said.
Details of his plans for the excise and a paid parental leave scheme will be announced soon.
Labor intends to increase the tobacco excise by 12.5 per cent every year for the next four years to raise an extra $5.3 billion in revenue.
Meanwhile, new figures show wages have grown at the slowest pace in three and a half years.
Mr Abbott said only a stronger economy could deliver strong wages growth.
"That's what our plan is designed to do," he said.
"That's what you won't get from a government that is constantly clobbering the economy with extra taxes. That's no way to boost people's pay."
The wage price index - the Reserve Bank's preferred measure - expanded at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent in the June quarter. It was the slowest growth rate since late 2009.
