Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten refuses to ‘dance to the Liberal tune’. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

The Opposition Leader effectively rejected a plea from the Prime Minister to join forces on a legislative package to save $6.5 billion in spending.

In a speech today, Mr Turnbull said there would be co-operation but in return Labor would have to make commitments on prized government policies.

“He’s dictating to Labor,” Mr Shorten told reporters.

“He says that the only form of co-operation can be if we do what he wants, if we dance to the Liberal tune,” he told reporters.

“Well, we will never vote to harm Medicare, we will never vote to lift the retirement age of Australians to 70 … and we will never vote to go ahead with $50 billion in tax giveaways he wants to give large companies.”

He said the Prime Minister should consult the Opposition and “come to the party” on measures Labor considers important.

This afternoon, Mr Turnbull said the government was “ready to reach across the aisle” to Labor on reducing debt and deficit.

“But Labor must be prepared to bring an open mind and some fiscal rationality to any discussions, as well as a commitment to support spending reductions they have already said they will back,” he told the Council for the Economic Development of Australia.

“Australians will not stand for a repeat of the aftermath of the 2013 election, when Labor decided — incredibly — to oppose savings measures it had itself proposed.”

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen accused Mr Turnbull of pretend bipartisanship, telling ABC radio “there has been no discussion with us. This is, as you say, a massive bill”.

“So if there was a legitimate attempt to act in the national interest to pass a bill you would think that Malcolm Turnbull might have picked up the phone or Scott Morrison might have picked up the phone to me and said this is how we want to handle things,” Mr Bowen said.

Mr Shorten said Labor would not be “spiteful” about Mr Shorten’s one-seat hold on a House of Representatives majority, and would not impose petty restrictions on pairing — the practice of an Opposition standing aside an MP to match the absence of a Government MP on official or personal matters.

But the Labor leader teased the Prime Minister about his claims to have won a working majority.

“In terms of our own conduct, we are not going to be petty,” said Mr Shorten.

“We know that in the Rudd-Gillard era when the numbers were very close, and there was a hung parliament, the Liberals could be quite spiteful from time to time.

“We’re not going to go down that same path. The Labor Party believes, for example that employers should provide compassionate leave to employees. We think that Parliament should do the same thing.”