Both major parties have gone back to the scare-campaign well to recycle old favourites six weeks out from election day.
Labor resurrected the unlikely possibility of a 15 per cent GST, while the coalition revived its attack on an opposition plan to limit tax breaks for property investors.
Treasurer Scott Morrison used a new analysis of tax office statistics to argue Labor's negative gearing policy would affect wealthy investors least of all.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen dismissed the findings as "completely contradictory" to what the treasurer has said in the past.
Labor would limit negative gearing to new homes from July 1 2017, but allow those with an investment property up to that date to continue claiming a tax break past the start date.
Under what Mr Morrison labelled Labor's "housing tax" investors could not negatively gear against salary and wage income unless they purchase a new home, but they could still use negative gearing to reduce their tax on income that comes from investments such as share dividends.
The analysis of Australian Taxation Office data found that investors earning more than $100,000 will continue to claim nearly 90 per cent of their net rental losses against their investment income.
Middle and low-income earners only have enough investment income to claim less than one quarter.
Mr Bowen said such claims were another "ridiculous and shrill" scare campaign that contradicted the treasurer's previous arguments.
"For months he's argued that high-income earners aren't the major beneficiaries of negative gearing in Australia," he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
Mr Morrison fired back by calling out Labor's hypocrisy on the issue, citing opposition frontbencher David Feeney's failure to declare a $2.3 million negatively-geared property in his inner-Melbourne electorate.
"I'm not surprised Chris Bowen wants to talk about things other than David Feeney," the treasurer told reporters in Sydney.
"Preaching and lecturing against wage-earning Australians on negative gearing ... while at the same time their policy is supporting those with big investment incomes like David Feeney."
On the other side of the country, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten warned that a vote for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberals increased the chances of a 15 per cent GST.
"Let's not forget that Mr Turnbull said for six months he toyed with the idea of a GST, only temporarily delaying it because he was concerned about electoral backlash," he told reporters in Perth.
After rejecting the idea of lifting the GST rate from 10 per cent because it results in negligible economic growth, Mr Turnbull has since said he won't pursue an increase in another term of government.
