The day after delivering his Budget reply, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten turned 50.
But he spent the day putting the focus on others.
"Malcolm Turnbull has a test today: he can side with the millionaires, as he usually does, or side with Labor and everybody else. Labor is committed to making sure that everyone does their fair share, but we don't believe that a person who earns $50- or $60,000 should have their income taxes pushed up while Mr Turnbull and his group are cutting taxes for multimillionaires."
Labor's Budget reply revealed it supports the government's plan to raise the Medicare levy but only for those earning more than $87,000 a year.
Mr Shorten told Parliament during his Budget Reply speech last night the government's plan to raise the levy by half a per cent would negatively affect too many Australians.
"A worker on $55,000 a year will pay $275 a year. For someone on $80,000 it's an extra $400. Labor cannot support making people on modest incomes give up even more of their pay packet."
Treasurer Scott Morrison says its proposed Medicare levy increase would help the government fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme but Labor is putting that at risk.
"Australians are just fed up with that. They are not interested in Bill Shorten's political rants, shaking his fist at the clouds and carrying on like he is at some sort of union conference. There is a $55.7 billion funding gap for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and what they're proposing, he said this morning, is just raise more taxes. He is actually using this as an excuse to raise more taxes."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hasn't given up on the levy passing Parliament.
"Let's fully fund it. It protects every Australian. Let's ensure the Medicare levy is increased by half a per cent. It is fair. Obviously people on lower incomes pay much less because it is half a per cent of income, people on higher incomes pay a lot more. It's fair and consistent."
While Labor is backing the government's plan to impose a levy on Australia's big banks, it wants to combine its proposed limited Medicare levy with another one.
The Deficit Levy is meant to end in July; it was a temporary Budget repair measure introduced by the Abbott Government in 2014.
Labor's proposal to extend it would see Australians earning more than $180,000 a year paying a tax rate of 49.5 per cent.
The Treasurer calls it economic vandalism; Bill Shorten says it's a better revenue-raiser.
"Our fairer propositions will raise actually more money over the medium term. Our proposal will raise $7.8 billion over four years and it will raise approximately $50 billion over the medium term, approximately."
Politicians have left Canberra as Budget week ends.
Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon remained in the capital and says he isn't immediately ruling out supporting Labor's proposals.
"Obviously the issue of the Medicare levy and the impact that may have on lower-income earners is something that we want to raise. It's been our view that a deficit levy on high-income earners will not be unreasonable to continue, given that we still have a deficit. We will look at these issues cautiously and methodically - it won't be a knee-jerk reaction."
