Pay Australian Defence Force properly: Labor

The Abbott government should pay its Team Australia players properly.

That's the message from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten who believes the lower-than-inflation annual pay rise of 1.5 percent for the Australian Defence Force is shameful.

The government insists it does not have the money to offer military personnel more cash and is staring down outspoken senator Jacqui Lambie who vows to oppose its legislative program until the offer is increased.

Mr Shorten said there was money allocated in the budget for a bigger Defence pay raise.

"The government loves to put the flag around themselves ... loves to be photographed with people in uniform," Mr Shorten told ABC TV.

"(But) the government can't lie straight in bed on Defence Force pay."

He accused the government of using the military to justify no pay rises for the rest of the public service.

"They talk about Team Australia ... yet they won't even pay the team players, the Defence Force, properly," he said.

Mr Shorten suggested the government could afford the pay increase if it dropped the overly generous paid parental leave scheme and cracked down on tax dodging by multinational companies.