Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has warned that if the government's proposed budget spending cuts are not passed, "the only alternative to balance the books is to increase taxes".

And ahead of Parliament resuming on Tuesday, Education Minister Christopher Pyne has suggested universities could face a "worst case" scenario of funding cuts without sector reforms if the Senate does not pass his proposed higher education reforms.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann refused to rule out tax increases if budget measures weren't passed. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The comments from both cabinet ministers are designed to step up pressure on Labor, the Greens and the crossbench to back the government's contentious budget savings and come ahead of Monday's cabinet meeting, which will focus on budget strategy.

Senator Cormann told the ABC's Insiders program there was "no rush to deal with specific structural reforms", such as the university funding changes, because many of these changes did not begin until July 2015 or later.