Both Labor and the Coalition have pledged tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to fund their campaign commitments, prompting a caution from global analysts that Australia’s AAA credit rating was under threat no matter who won Saturday’s election.

With the last budget forecasting $178bn in deficits over the coming four years, the Prime Minister said on Thursday he had not given up on surpluses and that he “didn’t promise to deliver a surplus” but ended up delivering two.

“And this year’s deficit is $27bn but that’s almost half of what was anticipated,” Mr Albanese told Sky News.

“So we’ve worked really hard on budget savings, over $100bn that we’ve delivered during this term.”

But when Mr Albanese was pressed repeatedly in an interview with Sky News on Labor would introduce new taxes or increased taxes if re-elected, he could not directly answer.

“Well, what we’ve got… is our policies out there for all to see,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday.

“What we’ve got out there is lower taxes, lower interest rates and at this election there is a real choice – lower income taxes under Labor or higher income taxes under the Liberals.”

Mr Albanese has ruled out changes to negative gearing, but potential changes to taxes on trusts could are rumoured to be under consideration.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton seized on the “train wreck” interview to say Mr Albanese could not be trusted.

“It’s obvious to Australians now that this Prime Minister is not telling the truth,” Mr Dutton said from Tasmania.

“If you’ve got doubts about Labor, doubts about what will happen with the Voice, doubts about what will happen with Labor’s new taxes, don’t vote for them.

“So the fact that the Prime Minister could not rule out those new taxes today just says to Australians that he hasn’t been honest during the course of this campaign.”

The Coalition on Thursday afternoon released its costings but promised it had found $10bn more in savings than Labor.

The opposition also said it would be able to reduce forecast debt by $40bn over the next four days, with finance spokeswoman Jane Hume pledging to “restore discipline, reduce debt and deliver cost-of-living relief that doesn’t fuel inflation”.

The Coalition’s flagship cost-savings policy is to slash some 41,000 Canberra-based public servants – a move experts have said would be impossible without cutting essential services.