The economy is about people - and people are struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
That's the key message shadow treasurer Angus Taylor wanted to get across in his first major speech since the Albanese government's first budget.
Mr Taylor said the overarching economy was in a relatively good position but businesses were struggling to find workers, waterlogged roads were deteriorating and power bills were hurting hip pockets.
"The Australian economy is fundamentally resilient," he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
"We have more businesses, strong terms of trade, record commodity prices, economic growth over three per cent and record low unemployment.
"But despite this turnaround and economic strength, people aren't feeling it in their everyday lives."
The prime minister has spent his first post-budget week on the road spruiking his government's pledge for cheaper child care.
Anthony Albanese says the best way to tackle the cost of living is to boost the workforce by the equivalent of 37,000 workers through cheaper child care.
The policy is set to save a parent on $60,000 with one child up to $800 but won't come into effect until mid-next year.
"Our most untapped resource is the full economic participation of women," he told reporters at a childcare centre in Adelaide on Wednesday.
But Mr Taylor has accused the government of raising the white flag on tackling inflation and bringing down the cost of living.
"This is a budget that tells Australians the government knows that it's tough but doesn't have the solutions," he said.
"The budget fails to use fiscal policy to make any headway to reduce pressures on inflation, to address the source of the pressure."
The budget will head further into the red despite a healthier-than-expected deficit for 2022/23.
Mr Taylor said regional communities had been left behind in the budget, with $2.8 billion of infrastructure projects cut and a further $6.5 billion in infrastructure projects delayed.
"These projects are productivity game changers that bust congestion, build capacity and improve quality of life in our regions," he said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said handouts and further spending would be counterproductive and would hurt Australians in the medium term with spiking inflation and interest rates.
He said spending the unexpected commodities windfall on cost of living supports for households would have added an extra 0.5 percentage points to inflation each year.
Dr Chalmers said it would have been "no doubt more popular" to have borrowed more money to spend on cost of living payments.
He also said the decision to bank the tax windfall would save the budget $47 billion in interest payments over the medium term.
