Abbott defends lack of detail in budget reply, calls for another election

The Opposition has defended the lack of detail in its budget response to the Parliament last night, saying the Coalition will deliver more details down the track and calling for another election to rid Australia of the “failed experiment” of a minority Labor Government.

In Tony Abbott’s budget reply last night, the Opposition Leader said he wanted to reach out to “small business people, police, nurse, firefighters, teachers, shop assistants, workers in our steel mills and mines, the people who are the backbone of our society.”

Abbott told those people he did not think they were rich, and knew they were struggling under a rising cost of living.

Labor’s budget has been criticised for both failing to deliver sizeable spending cuts and attacking the middle-class by means-testing the private health insurance rebate and freezing the indexation of certain government benefits.

The Opposition Leader told Parliament the Coalition was “much closer to workers’ real interests than a Labor party that’s sold its soul to [Greens leader] Bob Brown.”

His promises included a repeal of a carbon tax under a Coalition Government, an increase in the education tax rebate for all families to $500 a year for primary school and $1,000 a year for secondary school, working with the states to ensure that school councils can appoint principals, and delivering more funding to local board-run hospitals.

Abbott also flagged making work-for-the-dole mandatory for the long-term unemployed aged under 50, stopping dole payments for people under 30 in places where unskilled work is readily available, and a look at the disability pension.

“As things stand, we have a Parliament that can’t make decisions people respect, a Prime Minister who looks like she’s not up to the job and a minority Government that’s increasingly seen as an experiment that’s failed,” Abbott said.

“The Government lacks legitimacy, not because it lacks a majority but because it lacks integrity.”

“Only an election can give Australia a government with authority to make the tough decisions needed to build a better future.”

Finance Minister Penny Wong has criticised Abbott for failing to identify specific spending and savings ideas. The Coalition was attacked after the election for the emergence of a multi-billion-dollar blackhole in its costings, which it blamed on a difference of opinion with Treasury.

This morning on Nine Network, Abbott rejected suggestions that his speech was light on detail, saying it contained initiatives that would deliver “more responsible government.”

“In good time before the next election we will have a consolidated list of spending and savings, and people will know exactly how much the fiscal position will be improved under the Coalition.”

Abbott has also promised to slice regulatory business costs by at least $1 billion per year, with government departments accountable for meeting yearly red-tape reduction targets to be verified by the Productivity Commission.