"He wants to give them a tax cut. I want to give them a Royal Commission," he said.

The most awkward moment for the Prime Minister when he declined to answer a question from The Australian Financial Review's Laura Tingle about how he had disappointed voters since taking over from Tony Abbott and whether he would be different should he win the election and have his own mandate. He did distinguish himself by saying he did not come into Parliament as a former staffer or union official, as Mr Shorten did.

"I did not come into this role as a political activist. (I) did not come in here as a political staffer. I came into this role as an adult," he said.

"At 50. After a lifetime of working, building businesses. In many, many areas, creating jobs, standing up for the enterprise of hard working Australians that we all know is the foundation on which our future is based and we are backing them."

He reminded people that he had paid a higher price than most on climate change when he was dumped as leader in 2009 in a coup led by Mr Abbott.

Mr Shorten stressed the perception that Mr Turnbull was no different to Tony Abbott, on climate change or other issues.

"When Mr Turnbull got elected eight or 10 months ago, I thought my job would be harder but I thought the politics would go to a better place in this country. I thought we would dispense with Tony Abbott's thee-word slogans and I thought we would see a more elevated debate about ideas but on each issue I see this government shrinking in to an Abbott-style government of three-word slogans and scare campaigns and I do not expect the next five weeks of this election to be any different from this government," he said.


Mr Turnbull spruiked his company tax cuts including the first phase to give a tax rate of 27.5 per cent to businesses with turnovers of up to $10 million.

"Five million Australians work for businesses that generate $10 million a year or less in revenue. They will get a tax cut on July 1 if we are elected. Right across the board every element points to more growth and more jobs," he said.

Mr Shorten portrayed the tax cuts as a afterthought by pointing out several times the tax reform chaos that led up the federal budget and its centrepiece of $48 billion in tax cuts for business over a decade.

"Our opponents have had three economic plans in the last three months. First of all, it was a 15 per cent GST. Then it was to propose that state governments be allowed to levy additional income taxes and now it's a $50 billion tax giveaway for large businesses in Australia. This is a very expensive risk," he said.

Mr Shorten pointed out the unpopular banks and would get a tax cut and dividend imputation would see domestic shareholders disadvantaged.

"Fifty billion for large companies, $7 billion of that will go to large Australian banks, NAB, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ. These are matters which are a very expensive gamble. Much of this money will go to overseas shareholders. It will derive little economic benefit. Now, of course these economic theories have been tested before by thatcher and Reagan but it's a very risky expensive gamble to take with Australian taxpayer money for little economic benefit," he said.

Mr Turnbull downplayed the difference between the two parties on education which is a Labor strength.

"The difference between what we will spend, Federal money over the next four years, and what Labor is proposing is the difference between $74 billion and $78 billion. Four billion is a lot of money but we are spending more than ever before," he said.


Both men said there would be no more changes to superannuation if they won but Mr Shorten said the government could not be trusted because of what he said were the retrospective measures in the May 3 budget which included a $500,000 lifetime cap on non-concessional contributions made since 2007, and a $1.6 million cap on super retirement funds.

Mr Turnbull said Labor was hopelessly divided on asylum seekers and "the regrettable, the melancholy fact of the matter is that Australians cannot trust Labor to keep the borders secure".

"If Bill becomes Prime Minister, his government will be tested by the people smugglers. Now, he assures us that he will be as strong and as resolute as we have been. And time will tell. But what we know is what happened the last time Labor was in government."

Mr Shorten said: "Shame on you Mr Turnbull for what you just said."

"Shame on you for giving the people smugglers any hope they could be back in business."

Mr Shorten flagged a further big spending announcement on health but it would be unlikely labor would try and replace the $54 billion Mr Abbott took ut of hospitals over a decade in the 2014 budget.

He said Labor would boost hospitals funding by a "significant dimension".

But the opposition leader declined to say whether a Labor government would restore all of the commonwealth health funding cut from the states in the controversial 2014 budget.