Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen fears the Abbott government’s intergenerational report will be designed to salvage its failed budget.

Treasurer Joe Hockey will release the five-yearly review on the 40-year economic outlook on Thursday.

Mr Bowen says the government has suggested it will release a politicised document, when it should be above politics and instead provide a valuable contribution to the national economic and social debate.

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That is why a future Labor government would get the independent Parliamentary Budget Office to produce intergenerational reports to ensure short-term political considerations had no weight on either their timing and substance.

Mr Bowen says the treasurer already has sent mixed messages about the content of the report.

One one hand Mr Hockey had said “people will fall off their chair” when they read it, while on the other he has said “we’re not using this to shock people”.

“Like the selling of the Abbott government’s unfair budget, the treasurer can’t get his story straight, even when it comes to his own report,” Mr Bowen said.

“This is a government addicted to political point-scoring.”