If Australia were a company, Clive Palmer would write it off, the billionaire mining magnate said today.

Mr Palmer made the declaration this morning during a media conference in Brisbane, held to respond to the federal budget, in which he said he was too busy to return Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's phone calls.

Pre-empting Mr Abbott's budget reply tonight, Mr Palmer said the federal government was criminal and appeared to change his mind throughout the media conference on whether he would run for Liberal National Party preselection in Treasurer Wayne Swan's north Brisbane seat of Lilley.

"Firstly, this budget has been a fraud and a sham on the Australia people," Mr Palmer said.

"If I, or any company director in this country, was required to sign those accounts, we'd be opened for action from ASIC, an act that the Treasurer is supposed to administer or we'd be taken to court for misleading and deceptive conduct ... and for producing a set of accounts which is a fraud on the Australian people."