Treasurer Joe Hockey says the government will bring a symbolic end to stimulus cheques first issued by Labor in response to the global financial crisis.

The $900 cheques were an initiative of the Rudd government, but became emblematic of the waste associated with Labor’s approach to the GFC when it was found 16,000 had been issued to dead people.

Mr Hockey said he will introduce legislation this week to scrap what he labelled a “living, breathing example of Labor’s waste”.

“As it stands, four years after the GFC, these cheques could be directed to people who are overseas, who visited as backpackers four years ago, or to someone who is deceased,” he said in a statement.

Mr Hockey said of the 15,750 cheques originally issued but now considered stale, the tax office expects 500 to be reissued and about 200 to be paid out before passage of the legislation.