Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers has laid out Labor's economic five point plan which he believes will lift the "speed limit" of Australia's economic recovery.
Addressing an Ai Group function on Monday ahead of next month's federal budget and the election May, Dr Chalmers will says Labor is confident and keen on a contest about the economy.
"It needs to be a contest of ideas and not a cacophony of increasingly ridiculous and unhinged scare campaigns on tax or the Greens or China," Dr Chalmers will say.
"Because yet another political patch and paint job which smacks of desperation will not deal with the pressing economic challenges you face, and we face as a country."
He says Labor's Powering Australia plan will drive investment in cleaner and cheaper energy and create more jobs and opportunities, especially in the regions.
It also wants free TAFE and more university places to train Australians, and deal with skills shortages to ensure there are more opportunities in more parts of Australia.
Labor also intends to modernise the NBN to make the digital economy more accessible, flexible and productive in the 'work from home' world that people are becoming accustomed to.
It intends to make early education and childcare more affordable, to ease cost-of-living pressures on working families and boost participation so that there is a bigger pool of willing and able workers to draw on.
It will co-invest in manufacturing and other crucial sectors through a National Reconstruction Fund to diversify the economy, revitalise the regions through partnerships with business and help turn good ideas into good and secure jobs.
"If these policies and these issues aren't central to the budget in four weeks' time, I hope they're central to the election five or six weeks later," Dr Chalmers says.
