Opposition leader Bill Shorten says the Turnbull government has missed the mark with its budget, days away from the start of a federal election campaign.
"This is a budget which favours the millionaires over the battlers," the opposition leader told the Nine Network on Wednesday.
"This government has missed an opportunity. It is not nation-building, it is nation-shrinking."
Mr Shorten said Labor would support the tax cut to address bracket creep, but said most Australians would miss out.
"The top 10 per cent are getting the vast bulk of tax cuts. We think that is the wrong priority when they are cutting health and education," he said.
He said people earning a million dollars would get nearly $17,000 in a tax cut, but an average family on $60,000 with three children would lose more than $3000 in payments.
Mr Shorten said the government had tripled the deficit, but was not providing answers to reduce it.
He also took a shot at the government ahead of the election being called.
"I think that this budget was meant to be Malcolm Turnbull's big justification for rolling Tony Abbott, but at the end of listening to Scott Morrison last night I thought `is that what all the fuss is about'?
"Malcolm Turnbull is seriously out of touch with average families.
The opposition leader said he was pleased the Turnbull government had adopted some of Labor's budget repair measures, including tobacco excise and tackling high-end superannuation.
"We have been calling for a year to take real action on multinational tax avoidance."
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said it was a "Liberal budget to its core".
He's taken issue with an "extended GP tax by stealth" as well as "cuts" to funding for schools, Medicare, families, pensioners, veterans' hospitals and higher education.
A person earning $1 million a year will get a $16,715 tax cut, but three-quarters of taxpayers would get nothing, Mr Bowen said.
A couple on a single income of $65,000 with three children in primary school would be $3034 worse off a year.
A single mother on an income of $87,000 with two children in high school would be $4463 worse off.
"The difference between Labor and Liberal could not be more stark," Mr Bowen said.
"We'll put people first, while the 2016 budget has shown the Liberal party will look after high income earners and
multinationals."
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Budget 2016: Political experts react
Labor sentiment was shared by disgruntled Liberal MP Dennis Jensen who slammed his government's budget, describing it as a fudged opportunity.
Mr Jensen, who has lost preselection for his West Australian seat, took to social media on Wednesday morning to criticise the lack of any action to rein in "rampant spending".
"We simply cannot go on like this. This is just like Wayne Swan and `the four years of surpluses I announce tonight'. Where is someone like a Peter Costello when you need him?" the MP posted on his Facebook page.
The Greens say the budget is a "house of cards" built on assumptions about growth in the non-mining sector
that will increase the gap between the rich and poor.
"Now is the wrong time for tax cuts," treasury spokesman Adam Bandt told Sky News on Wednesday.
"We are very worried that this budget is going to turn this election into a tax cuts arms race."
Morrison begins budget hard-sell
Treasurer Scott Morrison will hit the airwaves on Wednesday to sell his first budget just days out from his prime minister calling a July 2 election.
The budget contains tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses, a reduction in excessive superannuation tax concessions and a modest adjustment to the middle-income tax bracket to tackle bracket creep.
Big business backs the budget - even though they will have to wait a decade until they achieve their goal of a 25 per cent corporate tax rate.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the budget had two big tasks this year - stay on course to a credible structural surplus, while equipping the economy with the means for faster growth to support long-term jobs and prosperity.
"On these two measures, (the) budget is heading in the right direction," she said.
But tax experts believe the government has missed another opportunity to undertake a wholesale overhaul of the tax system.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended the lack of handouts in the federal budget, saying average Australian families will benefit from stronger economic growth.
The government is out spruiking its pre-election budget which offers tax cuts for small business in exchange for cracking down on multinational tax avoidance and cutting superannuation tax breaks for the rich.
"This is a plan that will ensure our children and our grandchildren enjoy the great opportunities these times offer
them," Mr Turnbull told the Seven Network on Wednesday.
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Budget 2016: Education experts react
