The government is not revealing budget cuts ahead of Treasurer Chris Bowen's economic statement. Source: AAP
THE federal government has refused to come clean on what areas of the budget could face the chop as Treasurer Chris Bowen puts together an economic statement ahead of the looming election.
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the government's expenditure review committee was looking at a "range of options" to pay for its asylum seeker resettlement plan in Papua New Guinea.
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said there were suggestions the government was planning to abolish its school kids bonus - the cash payment of up to $820 to parents to help pay for school related expenses, to help fund the resettlement program.
There's also speculation the government may consider further changes to superannuation arrangements, he said.
"The Labor party is made up from A to Z of hypocrites," Mr Hockey told reporters in Sydney.
"You cannot run a budget and you cannot run an economy like this."
But Finance Minister Penny Wong said the school kids bonus is a "very important policy area".
"But I am certainly not going to be drawn ahead of the economic statement on ruling things in, or ruling things out," she told reporters in Melbourne.
Instead she launched a stinging attack on her opposition counterpart Andrew Robb.
He's questioned the relevance of Australia's top level triple-A credit rating because Lehman Brothers had the same when it succumbed to the global financial crisis in 2008.
She accused the shadow finance minister of warning investors off Australia.
"It's irresponsible, dishonest, it's damaging to confidence," she said.
Australia is one of only eight countries in the world with a triple-A rating from all three global agencies - Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service.
However, Mr Hockey believes the triple-A rating is important because since the GFC it has become more closely linked to the standing of financial institutions and directly affects the cost of borrowing.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Australia's rating was due to the sustained reforms of the former Howard government and those of the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating governments.
He says it owes nothing to the spending spree of the current government.
He labelled Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Australia's "world champion, gold medal fiscal vandal".
"We cannot have a strong economy without strong and profitable private businesses and that means getting taxes down, getting regulation down and means having a government that lives within its means," he told reporters in Brisbane.
He told a small business conference he would install people with small business experience on the Board of Taxation, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Fair Work Commission.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said Mr Abbott had offered a practical solution to one problem.
"It's a good plan," he said in a statement.
But he said issues such as red tape reduction, simplifying tax compliance, making it easier to employ and building better infrastructure also have to be acted upon.
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