Labor’s Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce have debated financial policy ahead of Tuesday night’s federal budget.

The pair appeared on 7NEWS Sunrise on Monday morning, touching on policies expected to be major election talking points including health and power prices.

Cost-of-living measures are expected to be a major feature on Tuesday night, following an already-announced $150 off energy bills for every household.

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This promise has been met by the Liberal National Coalition, as has Labor’s medicare pledge and cheaper new medicines policy.

Plibersek said that bill relief will form an important part of Labor’s budget.

“We’re also investing in Medicare,” she said.

“It’s a huge investment in making sure people are able to go to the doctor with a bulk billed visit.”

“We’re taking medicine prices down to $25 — it’s the first time in decades medicines have cost as little as $25.”

Women’s health and housing affordability will also form part of the budget, she said.

Joyce noted multiple times that the budget is created using the public’s money.

“It’s not the government’s money, the government’s merely handing back or allocating the funds that you have paid in your taxes when you worked all of Monday and I don’t know, half of Tuesday to pay your taxes.

“And if they don’t get it from there, they’re getting it by borrowing it from overseas, which you’ll have to then pay back later on.

“So sweeteners are really just you getting paid in your own sugar.

“When you think about it ... people are putting presents on your credit card so that they get voted for to be the school captain.

“So I think we’re gonna have to be very mindful of that and see that you know that we have a path that fixes our cost of living situation. I’d love to see them remove the subsidies to intermittent power but of course they won’t do that.”

“Stop sending money overseas to foreign companies to drive our price of power through the roof.”

‘I’ll have what they’re having’

However, Sunrise Host Nat Barr noted the coalition is spruiking similar policies to the Labor party.

“You’re saying ‘I’ll have what they’re having’,” Barr said.

“You’re backing most of the things that Labor is announcing.

“Things that the Coalition voted against last year, like the energy relief, that you... I think Mr Dutton called it a band-aid on a bullet wound and a con job.

“You guys are now saying, we’ll do it. “

Joyce claimed that unless Australia moves away from variable renewable energy, or intermittent renewable energy sources, “you’re not going to fix the cost of living.”

“You’re not going to fix your power price.

“I mean, that is just a fact.”

Joyce said the coalition is backing many of Labor’s policies “because otherwise they just swindle their way into government because everyone just says, oh, yeah, that’s a great idea”.

“I’m going to get $300 off my excessively high power bill, which is going to continue going up because we’ve gone to this mad way of producing power, intermittent power, euphemistically called renewables, and they’re working on the ignorance of the people and we just can’t let them get away with it.”

Energy debate rages

The government has to rebuild Australia’s energy system, Plibersek said.

“Barnaby keeps talking about intermittent power like there has not been a single day over the last two years that there hasn’t been a coal-fired power station go down because they’re 40 or 50 years old.

“If you’re talking about intermittent, it’s the 24 coal-fired power stations that Barnaby Joyce was told when he was in government were going to reach the end of their natural lives and be decommissioned, that they did nothing to replace.

“They keep breaking down because they’re old.

“So we have to rebuild our energy system. We’re doing that. You never did it. We’re doing that. And we’ve added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid already.”

However, Joyce said rather than rebuilding Australia’s energy system, Labor is “blowing it up”.

He pointed to the fluctuating nature of wind required to power turbines.

“Yeah, they’re called batteries, Barnaby.” Plibersek said.

“Same as it doesn’t always rain, but we build dams.”

Barr noted that the coalition has planned on an energy system made up of 54 per cent renewables.

“You’re not against it,” she said.

The Labor government has sent a 2030 target of 82 per cent, and a 43 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2005 levels.

The coalition does not have the 2030 target, Joyce said.

Instead, the coalition has pointed to nuclear power as a long-term solution for achieving net zero emissions.

Public service cuts and tax deductions are also expected to form part of the coalition’s policies heading into the election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed on Monday that Australians will head to the polls in May, noting that the coalition will have to release its policies “sometime between now and May”.

The House of Representatives and 40 Senate seats both require re-election by May 17.

In order to meet this deadline, the election will need to officially be called by April 13 — or on the next three weekends.