Shorten blasts timing of audit release

The federal government will release its commission of audit within days, but Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says the timing is all about politics rather than the interests of Australians.

Treasurer Joe Hockey is expected to outline the timetable for the audit's release in a speech in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

The government, while repeatedly promising to release the commission's recommendations before the May 13 budget, has kept its interim report under wraps since the middle of February and its final report since the end of March.

Mr Shorten said the government had deliberately not released the report before the South Australian and Tasmanian elections, and the West Australian Senate election re-run.

"I am deeply sceptical about when the government releases the commission of audit that it is all to do with politics and nothing to do with the interests of Australians," he told ABC radio.