Shorten on front foot over climate change

Bill Shorten has attacked the "malicious and "stupid" climate change deniers in the coalition as he went on the front foot over the environment.

In Darwin to launch a $115 million indigenous healthcare package, the Labor leader struck a different tone than the first week of the campaign.

The coalition has criticised Labor's climate change policy for using international abatement, and for imposing a cost to the economy over the next 11 years.

"What they want to do is scare Australians and say that it's too hard to take action on climate change," Mr Shorten told reporters in Darwin on Thursday.

He quoted Josh Frydenberg in 2017 saying it didn't matter whether a tonne of carbon was reduced in Australia or another country.

"The government is now scaring you about policies they used to have and support," Mr Shorten said.

"If you don't believe in the science of climate change, no amount of evidence will ever convince you because, fundamentally, it's a stupid position not to take action."

Mr Shorten also hit back at the coalition over its long term tax cut plans, which he says give billions of dollars to the top three per cent of taxpayers.

The strident tone marked a change in approach from Mr Shorten, who had spent most of the first week focused on rolling out Labor's cancer health policies.

The $115 million indigenous healthcare package includes $29.6 million to reduce youth suicide and poor mental health.

An extra $33 million will go to addressing rheumatic heart disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Senator Pat Dodson also said Labor would replace the Community Development Program, because he says it is punishing people into poverty.

He flagged a return to the Community Development Employment Projects program.

"Where the community has a say over the work, there's real wages, and it's work - if you work, you get paid, if you don't work, you don't get paid," he told reporters.

Mr Shorten is travelling to the Tiwi Islands on Thursday, where he will visit a health care centre on Bathurst Island and enjoy a community BBQ.

The Labor leader has mainly visited Liberal seats in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia in the first eight days of the campaign.