VIDEO: Hockey backs down on claims 'double-dipping' mothers are frauds

Treasurer Joe Hockey has watered down previous comments claiming mothers who access government and employer paid parental leave schemes are committing fraud.

On the TODAY Show this morning, Mr Hockey retreated from his earlier claim that the double dipping amounted to fraud, clarifying: "if you comply with the law it is not fraud".

"It is double dipping if you can go into one and another," he told TODAY host Karl Stefanovic.

But he dismissed the focus on "semantics", saying Stefanovic was caught in the "Canberra trap" and "playing word games".

He also said positive poll results would not lure the government into an early election because "our work is unfinished".

"It's not about elections and polls, it's about policy," Mr Hockey said, reiterating however that the decision about whether to call an early election was not his to make.

Watch the full segment in the player above