Labor has pledged to deliver bigger surpluses over the next term if elected to government, as Treasurer Josh Frydenberg puts the finishing touches to his first budget.
Mr Frydenberg will hand down a budget on Tuesday night forecasting the first surplus in 12 years, as well as tax relief for workers, a raft of pre-election sweeteners and record spending on health and education.
Some economists say the budget is already effectively in balance because of strong jobs growth, solid company profits and commodity prices and surging revenues.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, whose party has led in the polls for over 1000 days, said the budget would not be a plan for wages or an economic blueprint.
"Rather, it will be a highly political document, a desperate political document by Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg to try and change the political conversation," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
Asked about his approach to surpluses, Mr Bowen said: "Not only will we commit to surplus budgets, I've already committed to bigger surpluses than the government and we can do that because of our policies."
It's expected the government will bring forward already-legislated tax cuts as well as make changes to improve the hip-pockets of low-income earners.
"On tax cuts, they need to catch up with us first," Mr Bowen said.
"We have bigger tax cuts for 10 million Australians earning less than $125,000."
Meanwhile, the budget will include a $2.2 billion plan to fix notorious road black spots and regional roads.
"Keeping Australians safe is my government's number one priority," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
More than 1000 people died on Australian roads last year.
The budget will include:
* An extra $1.1 billion in funding for local governments under the Roads to Recovery program.
* An additional $550 million for the Black Spot Program, which targets known high-risk locations and has been found to reduce serious crashes by 30 per cent on average.
* A further $571.1 million to improve the safety and efficiency of heavy vehicle operations through new initiatives
Part of the plan will also be a federal Office of Road Safety.
In health, the budget will include $32.6 million which would see breast cancer patients save up to $1500 per scan, benefiting about 14,000 patients a year.
Labor will match the scheme.
