Federal budget: $14.6b cost of living centrepiece, broad JobSeeker rise hinted

Without many details, the cost of the centrepiece of Labor's second budget has been revealed, while it has also been hinted that the base rate of JobSeeker may be lifted across the board, not just for people over 55 years.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared that the coming cost-of-living package in the budget prioritises the most vulnerable people and, specifically, it "applies to more than one age cohort."

ANU demographer Dr Liz Allen wants welfare payments raised for all.

"So we're asking young people to be our future and to shoulder the economic burden of our future, particularly an ageing population, but we're not going to invest in them now. Right," she told The Canberra Times.

"I can I tell you, no one as a kid says 'when I grow up I want to be on the JobSeeker payment.'"

What the Treasurer revealed on Sunday is that households will receive several hundred dollars in power bill relief, depending on where they live, in a 50-50 Commonwealth-state funded package. Canberrans have been expecting to get smaller rebates than other Australians due to its electricity generation coming from 100 per cent renewable sources.

Other already announced measures, tied to the package, include $314 million over four years for an energy transformation incentive for small businesses and cheaper medicines.

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Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor warned that cost of living relief must not fuel inflation.

"We want to see a budget that is going to put downward pressure on inflation, and the real test for everything that the government is doing now is it putting downward pressure on inflation?" he told the ABC's Insiders program.

Further details will have to wait until Tuesday night when Dr Chalmers delivers the budget, but he insists it will not add to inflation.

"People are under the pump. We've carefully calibrated and designed this budget so that it takes pressure off the cost-of-living rather than add to it," he said.

"This will be a budget in the best Labor tradition. Help for the vulnerable with cost-of-living pressures, an eye on the future, and responsible economic management."

The Greens have been calling on Labor to raise all payments above the poverty line to $88 a day, saying "poverty is a political choice."

Raising payments had also been recommended by the women's economic equality taskforce and the economic inclusion advisory committee, while more than a dozen Labor MPs had joined an ACOSS-led call for raising the rate of JobSeeker.

Mr Taylor said the opposition is more focused on getting Australians into work.

The government earlier announced $11.3 billion to support a 15 per cent increase to award wages for aged care workers, which was mainly provisioned for in the October budget. Labor has also been championing its paid parental leave and child care changes which start on July 1 and are being extended in the budget outward years.