Budget shows '50 shades of Labor'

Australia's political landscape has transformed into "50 shades of Labor", Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi says.

Giving his budget reply on Thursday night, the former Liberal said the government had delivered a "political fix" aimed at holding onto office.

He said the budget took all of Labor's attack points and embraced the opposition's agenda.

Labor had been blind-sided because it never thought the Liberals would "tell their conservative base to go jump".

"It's 50 shades of Labor in this place," the South Australian senator told parliament.

"A realisation that the Nick Xenophon Team does Labor better than Labor does.

"That the Greens are a more extreme version of Labor and the Liberals are now Labor lite."

He said the budget would lead to a larger Senate crossbench as voters looked for alternatives.