The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will commit her government to big ''structural'' cuts in spending, putting a range of concessions and tax breaks enjoyed by wealthier Australians in doubt.

In her first big agenda-setting speech for the year, Ms Gillard will use an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday to say the cuts are necessary for the government to fund its signature education and disability reforms, which are likely to be the centrepiece of its campaign.

Setting the agenda ... Julia Gillard. Credit:Andrew Meares

The spending cuts, according to excerpts from her speech notes released to the media, were ''tough and necessary'' in a new ''low-revenue environment'', a reflection of flat company tax receipts after the mining investment boom peaked.

Her speech raises the possibility that years of accumulated concessions for upper middle-class and wealthy voters, handed out by successive governments and continued under Labor, may now be either trimmed or axed.