The prime minister has acknowledged the budget faces a very tough ride in the new post-July Senate, but Tony Abbott has nonetheless declared his economic statement will pass in time “because no one has put up a credible alternative”.



Abbott told a Melbourne Institute conference on Thursday night it could take several attempts to end the current legislative deadlock over the May statement, but he remained optimistic the debate would turn.

“Eventually – if not at the first attempt or even the second – this budget will pass, because no one has put up a credible alternative,” Abbott said.

With key crossbenchers signaling their opposition to major budget measures ahead of taking their places in the upper house next week, the prime minister appeared to suggest the ALP may come round from its current hardline stance.

“Even the Labor party will eventually realise that you can’t block the government’s economic action strategy without one of your own,” he said.

Abbott used his speech at the conference to contend that major economic reform was still possible despite the political obstacles faced by governments wanting to embark on structural change.

“The age of reform has not ended in Australia,” Abbott said. He said governments had to press ahead with getting the budget onto a sustainable footing because “business as usual is not an option for a country that’s living beyond its means.”

“The Australian people will never be content to wallow in mediocrity,” he said.

The government has taken a substantial hit in the opinion polls and left itself wide open to political attack by breaking key election promises in its first budget.

But Abbott said on Thursday night the Coalition had done what it told voters it would do pre-election: stop the boats, repeal the carbon tax, build the roads of the 21st century, and get the budget back under control.

“A lot else has happened since the election but the boats are no longer coming, an infrastructure boom unmatched in our history is shortly to begin, the budget is now projected to be in balance, and the carbon tax is likely to be gone within a week,” he said.

“This government is arguing for difficult but necessary reforms – not justifying incompetence or trying to excuse negligence.”

The new Senate takes its place next week and the government intends to press ahead with its plan to repeal Labor’s clean energy package and the mining tax.

Palmer United party senator Jacqui Lambie declared on Thursday that her party had no interest at all in compromising on unpopular budget measures “especially that $7 co-payment, deregulation of university fees and the paid parental leave, which is a very big sticking point for Palmer United”.

Abbott has been reaching out to the crossbench as representatives of the Palmer United party, Australian Motoring Enthusiast party, Family First, and one Liberal Democrat attended orientation sessions in Canberra on Thursday and Friday in order to learn about parliamentary procedures.