Labor has responded to criticism over not releasing its policy costings ahead of the start of pre-polling, with leader Anthony Albanese attacking the coalition for the same thing.
Mr Albanese says the party's costings will be released "in the usual way" ahead of polling day on May 21, criticising the prime minister for holding off on his campaign launch and policy costings until after people had begun casting their votes.
"We have no idea what their costings are. We have no idea what their commitments are," Mr Albanese told reporters on Sunday, a day before pre-polling begins.
"Scott Morrison is waiting for people to have voted for a week before he outlines what his costings are."
Labor has been coy about revealing whether their final fiscal tally will predict a higher deficit than the government, with Mr Albanese dismissing a media report saying the budget bottom line would be around $10 billion worse off over four years.
Rather than confirming the overall debt figure, Mr Albanese said Labor's spending would be targeted towards areas that provide an economic return.
"What we know is that the government has committed a lot more spending than we have on just about every single day of this election campaign," he said.
"What we know also is that Labor has prioritised spending in areas that will produce future income.
"Child care (funding) will produce additional revenue by women being able to work five days a week, by growth in productivity and growth in company profits."
The Labor leader also defended shelving a pledge to include superannuation for government-funded parental leave, which is mostly accessed by women.
But Mr Albanese left the door open for the estimated $200 million policy in future budgets, saying it is something he would like to achieve.
"We've said very clearly that's something we'd like to do. (But) you can't undo 10 years of damage in a short period of time," he said.
"We're very conscious of the fact that if we're successful on May 21, we'll inherit $1 trillion of debt so one of the things that we're doing is being very modest in our spending commitments."
Touring a Mother's Day market in the Sydney seat of Bennelong, Mr Albanese parted with a shot at the prime minister by comparing him to John Howard in the former prime minister's seat.
Brushing off criticisms levelled by Mr Howard, the opposition leader went on the offensive, attacking the disunity within the Liberals and between the coalition partners.
"I respectfully am untroubled by John Howard's comments," he said.
"If he was sitting in the caucus today he would not recognise the rabble that is the Liberal Party under Scott Morrison.
"John Howard led his party in a way that Scott Morrison never has and never will."
