After seven months of waiting, after months of ruling-in and ruling-out, after apprehension and great expectations, the Budget has fallen apart in 48 hours.
This Budget was meant to be Malcolm Turnbull's justification for rolling Tony Abbott. Now Australians are left to wonder why he bothered.
The same $80 billion cut to schools and hospitals, the same cuts to working and middle-class families, the same cuts to Medicare, to childcare, to aged care, to paid parental leave, to pensioners and carers.
Was this really the point of the Turnbull experiment? Tax cuts for high-income earners and nothing for families. Not one cent for ordinary working Australians. This is a Budget for big business over battlers. 
This Budget fails the test of fiscal responsibility too. Despite all their cuts and broken promises, in the past three years the Liberals have tripled the deficit.
They are collecting more tax than any time since John Howard's last year in office yet they've added $100 billion to Australia's national debt.
We must be honest about what our Budget can truly afford. This is why my team and I are treating the Australian people with respect and making the hard choices to fully-fund our investments in Australia's future, to turn around these deficits and deliver Budget repair that is fair.
FAMILIES If there's one fact that defines this Budget, it is this: A working mum on $65,000 with two kids in high school will be more than $4700 worse off, every year, while someone on $1 million will be almost $17,000 better off every year.
Three-quarters of Australian workers won't receive any tax relief but will disproportionately suffer from cuts to schools, hospitals, Medicare and family support.
On Tuesday night the Treasurer said he didn't want to talk about "winners" and "losers". Now we know why: The more you have, the more you get; the less you earn, the more you lose.
This Prime Minister has the audacity to accuse us of waging "class war" but it is not class war to disagree with cutting money from families on $50,000 and $60,000 in order to give millionaires a tax break or ask why he is cutting $80 billion from schools and hospitals but spending billions on big business.
TAX CUTS Labor will support the government's modest measures on bracket creep. However, in the face of continuing deficits, now is not the time to give the richest 3 per cent of Australians another tax cut.
According to the Parliamentary Budget Office this decision is estimated to -improve the Budget by $16 billion over the decade.
Last year I invited the government to co-operate on cutting the tax rate for Australian small businesses to 25 per cent. We meant it then - we stand by it now.
But billion-dollar operations are not small businesses. Coles is not a small business. The Commonwealth Bank is not a small business. As important as they are to our economy, they don't need a taxpayer subsidy which Australia cannot afford.
Labor will support a tax cut for small business but unlike the Prime Minister we will not use this as camouflage for a massive tax cut to big multinationals, especially when the government is refusing to tell us the cost of their 10-year plan.
Based on a preliminary -estimate from the Parliamentary Budget Office, this will mean a Budget improvement of $49 billion over the decade.
Two decisions, $65 billion in budget improvements.
SUPERANNUATION Labor will happily support our own clear and costed policy to close the unsustainably generous superannuation loopholes at the very top end.
However our reforms will only ever be prospective and predictable, so people can plan for the future with security, while the Coalition's changes are chaotic and unprecedented. Superannuation holders can now only guess what Turnbull and Morrison will do next.
JOBS Full employment and creating better paid and better-protected jobs is Labor's economic priority. The jobs of the future will be powered by infrastructure and renewable energy.
Taking real action on -climate change will create new jobs, attract new international investment and power our industries and services.
Of course, advocating climate action is hard, and running a scare campaign against it is easy. Mr Turnbull should know - he's done both.
And instead of cutting infrastructure by a further $1 billion, Labor will turbocharge Infrastructure Australia with a new $10 billion funding facility.
Instead of taking selfies on the train, we'll get new projects underway. If we don't, by 2031, congestion on our roads will cost Australia $53 billion.
This is why a Labor government will invest directly in public transport, including the Western Sydney Rail line. And the most important piece of infrastructure to any 21st- century economy, is a first-rate, fibre, National Broadband Network: Creating jobs, plugging us in to Asia and linking small businesses in the regions with new markets in our region.
EDUCATION Securing Australia's prosperity begins with education.
Over the next 10 years, Labor will invest $37.3 billion to guarantee every school in Australia receives fair funding on the basis of need. We will deliver on the Gonski promise - and go beyond.
As the son of a teacher, as a father of three children and as prime minister, I will ensure every child, in every school, gets every opportunity for a great education.
This funding guarantees schools can teach the basics better, building a strong foundation to inspire a love of learning and impart the skills needed to thrive in this century: Coding skills, computing skills, technology and science skills. And Labor will be backing public TAFE. We will restore integrity to the training system, by cleaning out the dodgy private colleges who have been ripping Australians off for too long.
In 2014, the 10 largest private training colleges in Australia received $900 million in government funding yet less than 5 per cent of their students graduated.
We will cut this wasteful spending, saving an estimated $6 billion over the decade.
HEALTH In Australia, the health of any one of us, matters to all of us. That's why Labor created Medicare.
Medicare speaks to who we are as a society, as a country. A guarantee you are treated according to your health care need, not according to your income.
Medicare drives economic growth and productivity, keeping us active, healthy and productive at work. And in this Budget it only gets worse for Medicare and the Australians who rely upon it Under a Labor government, Medicare will be in safe hands - and in public hands. We will not support the privatisation of the Medicare system. Full stop.
OTHER SAVINGS From infrastructure to health and education, Labor has made it clear how we will fully fund each and every one of our promises.
We will save $1.4 billion by repealing the Nationals' new Baby Bonus and we will -recover another $1 billion by abolishing the discredited -Direct Action plan.
And we will not spend $160 million of taxpayer money on a divisive plebiscite dredging up all kinds of harmful prejudice. Instead, the Parliament of Australia will do its job and vote to make marriage equality a reality.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY Building a stronger budget also demands an honest look at housing affordability, and tax subsidies such as negative gearing and capital gains that make the problem worse.
These two measures will cost the Budget more than $10 billion this year. They are not tax breaks for battlers. Half of all the benefit goes to the top 10 per cent of income earners.
This is not sustainable, and it's not fair. Instead, we will redirect investment into new housing after 1   July next year, saving the Budget $32 billion dollars over the decade.
people first In 58 days, Australians will decide who governs the country for the next three years.
We might be the underdogs, but we have never sought to be a small target. We are offering a social and economic program for betterment of this nation.
By contrast, this Budget punishes people who can't -afford it and rewards those who don't need it. Australia, my team and I offer ourselves as your next government. We have learnt the hard lessons of the past. We are united, we are ready and we will always put people first.
Bill Shorten is the Opposition Leader. This is an edited version of his Budget Reply speech last night.