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Govt welfare bills class warfare: Labor

The Abbott government has been accused of advocating class warfare with its contentious welfare cuts.

It fast-tracked three bills to the Senate on Wednesday that cut the seniors supplement, change family welfare benefits and charge interest to young people who owe Centrelink money.

The most controversial measures cut off families with kids over the age of six from the Family Tax Benefit Part B, and push jobseekers aged between 22 to 24 years onto the lower Youth Allowance payment.

Labor accused the government of gagging parliamentary debate on the bills because it was afraid to air its planned hits on the poor.

Most people impacted by its changes resided in Labor-held electorates, while the prime minister's and treasurer's constituents would be better off.

"If there's a class warfare, we know where it's coming from," Labor MP Tony Burke said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten labelled the welfare bills a "ruthless" and "savage" attack on the nation's social safety net.

"It's a sneaky, dishonest attempt to fundamentally recast the Australian social contract," he told parliament.

But the government said there was no need to debate the welfare bills because they had already been fully covered in the lower house previously, albeit in a different form.

That's because it has repackaged the original set of bills into four to make them more attractive to a hostile Senate.

More contentious measures, which hike the age pension access age to 70 by 2035 and impose a six-month welfare waiting period for under-30s, are contained in separate bills yet to pass the lower house.

The Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Seniors Supplement Cessation) Bill 2014, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 4) Bill 2014, and the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Student Measures) Bill 2014 all go to the Senate.