UPDATE 12.32pm: JULIA Gillard has brushed aside the Treasurer's bumbling interview during which he smashed a glass, as our readers say they'll be worse off post-Budget.

The Prime Minister said Wayne Swan's interview was less important than Tony Abbott's budget reply tonight.

Mr Swan was this morning unable to nominate a date when Labor last had a budget surplus, and after taking a sip of water his glass shattered in his hand.

Ms Gillard was able to name the date Labor last had a surplus budget – 1989-1990 – and turned the tables on journalists asking which government was the highest-taxing in Australia’s history.

Answering her own question, Ms Gillard said it was the Howard Government.

"Wayne Swan did smash a glass this morning, but that's less important than Tony Abbott smashing the budget surplus tonight," Ms Gillard said.

She said Mr Abbott’s rhetoric of a "class war" was baseless, and called on him to nominate cuts if he was going to attack her government’s budget.

The Treasurer has come under intense pressure for targeting some middle-income families in the Budget.

He and Ms Gillard have admitted some of the government’s choices would not be popular.

Families hit with 'class war' taxes

More than nine out of 10 Herald Sun readers say they will be worse off from the Gillard Government's Budget, a poll has revealed.

With Labor well behind the Coalition in opinion polls, the verdict on the Budget is grim news for the Government as it faces claims it has sparked a "class war".

Almost 28,000 people responded to the poll at heraldsun.com.au, 92 per cent saying the Budget would make them worse off.

Just under 8 per cent say it will leave them better off.

Mr Abbott said the Government was punishing aspiration and hard work by families earning $150,000 a year.

"These are class-war cuts that the Government is inflicting on people," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Swan said Budget changes at the "top end" for family payments were "entirely justifiable" and rejected claims it was class war.

He said the Budget aimed to ensure the family benefits system could be funded for the next 40 years while giving more to families with older teenagers now and introducing paid parental leave.

Mr Swan did not think families on $150,000 were rich but it was more important to be generous to people on modest incomes of $60,000 and $70,000.

A single-income family on $150,000 will pay a $750 flood levy from July 1, but also faces the carbon tax next year as the Government has said the family is unlikely to be fully compensated for the rise in their cost of living.

This comes on top of the rising cost of private health insurance, electricity, gas, petrol and food prices, though other goods and services are cheaper.

Australian Council of Social Services chief executive Cassandra Goldie said "every family is different", but the organisation was happy with the income threshold being used.

Focus on the Family counselling manager Deb Sorensen said the question of whether $150,000 was a "rich" household's income was difficult to answer.

"The families I am talking to here are lucky to have $70,000 or $80,000," she said.



Mr Abbott said the Government was "not tough on waste, but it is tough on families".

He said $2 billion was being cut from family payments while $1.7 billion was spent on boat people and border protection.

"This is a Government which thinks that a policeman married to a nurse is part of a super-rich family," he said.

"Why is this Government always targeting people who want to get ahead?

"Why is this Government against the aspirations of people?"

Mr Swan said, "Sometimes we have to tighten our belt a bit and that's what we're doing with family payments at the top end".

Originally published as Swan 'cracks' under Budget pressure