Australia could "go broke" if the budget is not repaired within five years, Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned.

Mr Joyce is warning schools and hospitals would need to be closed and has questioned the country's ability to defend itself if Parliament does not approve key budget measures.

"If we don't turn our nation around financially, we are going to go broke - whether its three years, five years or ten years," he said.

"If you keep borrowing more money than you bring in, we know where we are going to end up."

Mr Joyce acknowledged concerns the Government had not properly explained the need for some of its budget measures to the public.

But the Agriculture Minister said everyone would understand the consequences of failing to act.

"If we don't financially turn the show around, in five years time our discussion will be about what hospitals we close, what schools we close, how we defend ourselves as a nation," he said.

Mr Joyce was responding to questions about the new Senate.

He urged the crossbenchers, including Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer, to take the nation's finances "seriously" and not treat the Parliament as a "play thing".

"Clive is in a powerful position, there's no doubt about that, with power comes great responsibility," he said in Launceston.

"It's not about Clive - it's about our nation."

Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised the prospect of Parliament taking years to approve some of the measures included in the Government's first budget.

"It's by no means unusual for some elements of a budget to still be before the Senate six months, 12 months or even 18 months later," he said in Sydney.

"I know that there was some of the former government's private health insurance changes, which I think took two or three years to get through the Senate."

Mr Abbott said he did not want to "underestimate" the "complexity" and the "time-consuming nature" of the task ahead of the Government.

"It will be quite a complex task ... we're up for it," he said.

Labor's agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, attacked the Government’s "confected budget emergency" as an excuse to justify cuts.