Labor Leader Bill Shorten is rejecting claims the party could backflip on more promises following the decision to scrap the schoolkids bonus.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused the opposition leader of making a captain's pick in abandoning a policy he'd milked over years for political gain.
The Labor leader on Saturday admitted the decision to dump the $4.5 billion payment - which only months ago he'd vowed to restore - was made following the release of the latest Treasury update (PEFO).
"We made our decision on Thursday - the last straw was PEFO," Mr Shorten told reporters in Sunbury.
Mr Turnbull rubbished that argument, saying there was nothing in the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook that hadn't already been spelled out in the budget.
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It was a purely political decision with no basis in policy.
"He had milked all of the political gain from saying he was going to restore the schoolkids' bonus ... and then cynically at the last minute ... he does a backflip on Thursday without apparently consulting his shadow cabinet," the prime minister told reporters in Sydney.
Mr Shorten dismissed questioning about whether abandoning the bonus could spell further backflips on promised funding.
"We've made choices, but we've made different choices to Mr Turnbull," Mr Shorten said, adding Labor would defend school funding and Medicare.
Scrapping the bonus means eligible parents won't be getting up to $856 a year for each of their school-age children.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said there needed to be more help for families who had children at school.
"You'll be seeing through this campaign a range of policies that assist families to support kids in schools, particularly those who are vulnerable as a result of the huge cuts we've seen in healthcare and across other areas of the economy," Senator Di Natale told reporters in Sydney.
