I suspect when Treasurer Scott Morrison talks about the "taxed and the taxed nots'', he isn't thinking about rich, retired leaners. Credit:Brendon Thorne "The period of this term could well prove to be the tipping point on the trajectory of debt our children and grandchildren will be saddled with," he said, adding that once debt reached a critical mass, servicing it would overwhelm other priorities with debt building its own momentum, which would "only grow more difficult to tame." The doomsday scenario also carried a warning that the ratio of taxpayers to non-payers - households who receive more in government payments than they pay in income tax - will dip below 50 per cent in coming years. But achieving progress, which will begin with the omnibus bill, is far from assured. Mr Shorten said the government had been in power now for some time but was still casting around looking for someone to blame.

"What a surprise, Scott Morrison says it's someone else's fault! Last time I looked, his title was government, ours is opposition - if they can't govern, they should get out of the way and let some people who can govern do it," he said. Mr Shorten restated his position of qualified support on the omnibus bill, contingent on the detail. "Yesterday at the National Press Club, in good faith we offered solutions to two issues with are driving Australians really to the point of frustration. One is they want to see a better budget. We offered $80 billion worth of improvement," he said. "Furthermore, we've said we'll have a look at their bill - they can't even give us the legislation, that's how hopeless they are. But also we've offered to fix the superannuation issue. Labor didn't invent this superannuation mess, this train wreck. "Mr Morrison has got to stop chucking tantrums ... this is a government of first-class whingers and bunglers.

"They won the election. They now need to start acting like a government, not a bunch of movie critics." Mr Shorten got some unexpected support for his position on Thursday with Tony Abbott's former chief of staff, Peta Credlin, telling Sky News "that it's quite right" for the opposition to withhold its final judgment on the legislation until it has been furnished with the detail. In comments unlikely to impress the Turnbull administration, she criticised the government for not having the omnibus bill ready, thereby removing the excuse from the opposition that it doesn't have specifics. Loading And in other comments, Ms Credlin also warned the government against trying to go around the opposition to do a deal with the Greens over superannuation reform. She urged Mr Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull to talk to Labor, saying a Greens deal was something the Liberal conservative base would not accept.

In other comments, Ms Credlin also asked why the government had no apparent plan-B same on the same sex marriage plebiscite amid growing suspicions the public vote will fail in the Senate.