Prime Minister Scott Morrison has labelled Labor's climate change policy a "Borat tax" before impersonating the fictitious Kazakh journalist in a rowdy Question Time dominated by the budget.
While Labor grilled the government over its budget, Mr Morrison hit back at the Opposition's plan to allow Australia's biggest polluters to buy and sell carbon offsets in the international market.
Scott Morrison impersonated Borat as he attacked Labor's climate change policy. Source: SBS News
"They want carbon credits from Kazakhstan," Mr Morrison told Parliament, before launching into a cringe-worthy impression of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat.
"I know what Borat would think of the Labor Party's policy on emissions reductions: 'Very nice!'" Mr Morrison said as he gave two thumbs up.
Sacha Baron Cohen as the real deal. Source: Mary Evans Picture Library
Labor was more focused on the budget, questioning the government's last-minute decision to extend power bill relief payments to those on Newstart made after the budget was handed down on Tuesday night.
The change will cost an extra $80 million this financial year.
"The government's budget is unravelling less than 24 hours after it was delivered," shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told Parliament.
"I've seen some budgets unravel in my time ... but never before have I seen a budget unravel quite as spectacularly or quickly as this."
Tax cuts matched
Labor is hoping to neutralise the government's tax cuts and cash splashes while promising Australians it will spend more on the services that matter to them.
Last year's $530 tax offset for low and middle-income earners was doubled in Tuesday night's budget to $1080 for more than 10 million taxpayers earning up to $126,000 a year.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says the government has just matched what Labor promised a year ago.
"On the first of July, all Australians can know that whoever wins the election that they're going to get those tax cuts," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
Mr Shorten also pointed out the government's entire tax plan was two elections away.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will outline Labor's budget response on Thursday night. Source: AAP
"Who really believes this government will be around in two terms time to honour tax cuts which are in the middle of the 2020s?" he asked.
Mr Shorten will get his chance to deliver his formal budget reply speech on Thursday night.
NDIS criticism
But the government faced criticism that the surplus was built on a $1.6 billion underspend on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Mr Shorten said that was one of the budget's more shameful features.
"I know people with disability and I know their families. I know there's many families crying out for support to which they're entitled and not getting," he told Sky News.
"I don't think they'll be very happy that the government's trying to write a political dividend from them."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was a terrible lie to say there was an underspend.
"We overestimated the demand in the NDIS - that money actually shows up in extra expenditure on hospitals where a lot of those services are being provided by the states," he told ABC radio.
"So it's just swings and roundabouts."
