Labor leader Anthony Albanese has accused the government of sending conflicting signals about the international border after Mr Morrison did an interview with News Corp newspapers last weekend, in which his comments appeared to suggest he wanted to keep borders closed indefinitely.

Mr Morrison issued a Facebook post on Sunday morning to reject the idea he was seeking zero virus cases before opening borders, while Mr Frydenberg told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he wanted a return to migration when it was safe to do so.

“The government needs to fix border issues, which it is in charge of,” Mr Albanese said on Monday. “Until we fix up the health issues associated with COVID then there will remain restrictions, including on skilled migration, including on tourism, including on our international education sector.”

Mr Morrison made his remarks to the regular meeting of Coalition party room members in Parliament House on Tuesday morning, knowing they would be briefed to the media afterwards.

MPs did not ask about some of the biggest controversies in recent days, such as the threat of jail terms for Australians returning from India, the pace of the vaccination rollout and the date to be set for the opening of the international border.

Instead, the backbenchers praised Mr Morrison and his ministers ahead of the budget at 7:30pm.

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Mr Albanese said on Tuesday morning he would take a “constructive” approach to the budget as long as it could deliver “secure jobs with decent pay”.

“It was Labor who argued for wage subsidies that became JobKeeper. It was Labor, along with the trade union movement, that pointed out there was a problem with no paid pandemic leave,” he told Radio National.

Mr Morrison is trying to present Labor as a party that would keep spending when the recovery was underway.