Malcolm Turnbull may have started off singing a different tune to his predecessor, but the Prime Minister’s latest remarks on the importance of “cutting spending” are hauntingly reminiscent of the Abbott era, according to the Opposition.

Faced with a looming budget and shrinking options to tackle the budget deficit, Mr Turnbull told Sky News on Sunday that returning the budget to surplus is a long-term project that will be achieved through growing the economy faster rather than raising taxes.

And he said eliminating “unjustified” spending and maintaining strong economic growth was his government’s policy, citing New Zealand PM John Key as an example of someone who had reined in spending effectively.

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Shadow finance spokesman Tony Burke said this smacked of the Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey rhetoric of ‘debt and deficit’ and their disastrous first budget deemed so unfair it ended the Abbott government’s honeymoon period.

“It’s clear Malcolm Turnbull is heading for a repeat of Tony Abbott’s disastrous 2014 budget,” Mr Burke told The New Daily.

“The salesman may have changed, but it’s clear from the rhetoric the policies are largely the same.”

Tony Burke: we’ve heard it all before. Photo: AAP

Mr Turnbull’s cost-cutting philosophy came just two days after state premiers rejected his proposal to let the states raise their own income taxes in order to pay for public schools and hospitals.

After the rejection, the PM warned the premiers to start “living within their means” and to not depend on the federal government for handouts.

The Prime Minister and Treasurer Scott Morrison are struggling to find ways to raise revenue without adding any new taxes after Mr Turnbull took the proposal to increase the GST “off the table” in February.

Labor is not so constrained. It intends to cover health and education spending with new taxes, including a tobacco excise, reduced tax breaks for the superannuation of high-income earners and by preventing multinational companies from profit-shifting.

Because the Coalition has rejected these and many other Labor plans, Mr Turnbull seems to have been left with few options other than Mr Abbott’s favourite: reduce spending.

Mr Abbott himself believes that Mr Turnbull is echoing his government’s mantra. When asked on Sunday if he thought Mr Turnbull was pursuing his mantra of “lower, simpler, fairer taxes” (which would require tighter controls on spending), Mr Abbott replied: “Obviously I do.”

“The important thing is to ensure we have the right system in place so that all of our people, particularly our most vulnerable people, can be supported in the way they deserve,” he told Sky News.

His plan for greater fiscal responsibility might be back in vogue, but the man himself definitely isn’t. A recent poll commissioned by The Australia Institute found that 63.4 per cent of Australians want Mr Abbott gone from politics – including half of all Coalition voters.

But a senior Liberal, former party leader Dr John Hewson, is not so sure that Mr Abbott’s rhetoric is catching on.

John Hewson recently urged the PM to give Abbott a role in the federal election campaign to avoid disunity within the Coalition. Photo: AAP

He said he did not read too much into Mr Turnbull’s comment over the weekend that the Commonwealth and states must live within their means, saying it was a “pretty trite” response.

“I think he was a bit shellshocked that he didn’t get any support [for the idea of state income tax] and so he had to say something,” Dr Hewson said.

But he said the government had clearly taken the view that Australia has a spending problem (when in fact “it’s clearly a revenue problem”), but would struggle to push any cost-cutting measures through the obstructionist Senate and thus would be forced to “copy” some of Labor’s revenue-raising proposals, such as extra tax on tobacco.

“There will be tax increases” but in disguise, Dr Hewson said.

He also repeated his warning that Mr Turnbull’s so-called “master ploy” of proroguing Parliament to force the Senate to reconsider the construction watchdog bills was a “huge gamble” that could backfire.

“They may well pass it,” Dr Hewson said. This would be the “worst possible outcome”, as the PM would be forced to govern through to September or October without a clear agenda, he said.

“He’s sort of at the mercy of the Senate.”

-with AAP