PM shifts attack on Labor to 'green tape' he says costs Australian jobs

Ahead of his final debate against Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Canberra on Wednesday night, Mr Morrison warned of a threat to the economy from the expansion of union "red tape" and environmental "green tape" that tied down employers when they should have more freedom to expand and hire workers.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Morrison framed the May 18 election as a choice between the continuation of his existing economic policies and the huge tax changes promised by Mr Shorten.

Mr Morrison played down the prospect of any changes to industrial relations law if he held power, while also dismissing the prospect of spending cuts that would take Australians by surprise after the election.

Four years after he presided over a $2.4 billion spending cut to the age pension, the Prime Minister rejected any parallel between his move and Mr Shorten's contentious proposal to scale back tax refunds from dividend imputation on shares.

"There are still big challenges to come - the tensions between China and the US, among many, so there are some real threats that we will face," he said on the economic case to keep him in power.

"I think that heightens the risk at a time when uncertainty is great enough in terms of what the world is dishing up to us. So now is the time for responsible and careful budgeting and expenditure."

Mr Morrison spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age during a visit to Albury and Wodonga on Tuesday, where he narrowly missed being "egged" by a protester. Mr Shorten has also been approached for an interview.

Lagging Labor in the polls with only 10 days to go until ballots are cast, the Prime Minister warned that a vote for Labor would give unions control over industrial laws and the Greens control over environmental laws.

"I don't want to see the Labor Party get to office where they tie businesses up with all sorts of union red tape and all sorts of the Greens' green tape, which would just cost people jobs," he said.

"The unions are making the case for change to put them in control. They will be more in control than Bill Shorten."

The Prime Minister has been hit with an egg while campaigning in New South Wales.

Mr Shorten has campaigned on laws to restore penalty rates, lift the minimum wage to an as-yet-undefined living wage and protect the rights of workers and unions when they are negotiating enterprise bargaining agreements.

While Mr Morrison blasted the "militant" unions, he made no proposal for any alternative changes to industrial relations law to protect employers.

The Coalition has blamed "lawfare" and "green tape" for halting or delaying mining and other projects in recent years, turning this into a major dispute with Labor and the Greens.

Mr Morrison promised to fast-track laws to stop protestors invading farms to halt the production of meat or dairy products.

He has based his election campaign on estimates of $387 billion in higher taxes under a Labor government, including revenue from changes to dividend imputation rules.

While the government accuses Labor of imposing a "retiree tax" on older Australians, Mr Morrison presided over a $2.4 billion saving over four years from stricter rules on the age pension in 2015.

Mr Morrison's changes, when he was social services minister, widened access to the pension for some, but it also cut the pension to others and removed some people from the full or part pension.

"The changes we made were progressive, the changes that we made were about fairness," Mr Morrison said.

"The changes Bill Shorten wants to make are about neither of those things - they're not reforms, they're just tax grabs."

Mr Morrison denied any hypocrisy in his attack on the Labor scheme and said the government's changes in 2015 adjusted rules from less than a decade earlier, whereas the Labor changes to dividend imputation altered the rules set much earlier.

The Labor policy raises $10.7 billion over four years, more than four times the saving from Mr Morrison's pension changes four years ago.