Nationals wary of another regional raid in budget

But a senior Labor figure dismissed the concerns as fear mongering and vowed not to repeat the Coalition's practice of promising and not delivering.

The budget is due to be handed down in the second week of May. Mr Littleproud said the entire nation's economy would suffer if the government continued to slash funding in the regions as a budget saving measure.

In the previous budget, Labor redirected billions of dollars from rural infrastructure and regional grants programs.

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"The bulk of savings in the last budget came from regional Australia - they took away our road funding, our dam funding and our agriculture visas," Mr Littleproud said.

"Unfortunately, if you're one of the 30 per cent of Australians living outside a capital city, you've become a forgotten Australian."

However, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said unlike budgets under the Coalition government, regional Australians could be confident promises made would come to fruition.

"We're not going to repeat the former government's practice of promising billions of dollars that never actually gets delivered," Senator Watt said.

"What we're focused on is actually delivering things that improve life in the regions."

At the top of Senator Watt's list was creating a long-term funding model for the nation's biosecurity system, which is under immense pressure and at risk of crumbling in the face of a growing number of threats, according to several reports.

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But the Agriculture Minister stopped short of promising to deliver the key election commitment in this budget.

"I am fighting hard to deliver sustainable biosecurity funding in this budget... negotiations within the government are still underway and there's a range of competing priorities," Senator Watt said.

"But I am pushing hard to deliver this one and it's my biggest priority as we head into this budget.

"My priorities remain the same as they have been for a while now; biosecurity, workforce shortage, sustainability and trade. They're the key areas that I'm working towards in the budget, but biosecurity is definitely number one."

The National Farmers Federation has met with several Labor ministers in the lead up to the budget, lobbying the government to reverse the live sheep trade phase out, pursue regional housing options and extend the instant asset write off.

The housing shortage in the bush had reached crisis point, NFF president Fiona Simson said, and without a long-term nationally coordinated approach it would continue to stifle economic growth.

"Regional communities are hurting with vacancy rates below one per cent," Ms Simson said.

"There is no silver bullet, but we need the federal government to step up its leadership to solve this problem."

Ms Simson said the entire agriculture industry remained united and steadfast in its opposition to the phase-out of live sheep export,

"We'll continue to call on the government to back up their rhetoric and provide evidence for their decisions," she said.

"Every part of the farm sector is nervous that a government could fall victim to the ideology and misinformation of radical activists rather than back farmers and simply act on the evidence."