"We're too quick to want to sell things off," Mr Broad said, adding that the "economic dry argument is never the great way to run the country".

Mr Broad, the member for Mallee in Victoria, was responding to an interview Mr Hockey gave to the Wall Street Journal, in which the Treasurer flagged the potential of up to $130 billion of government asset sales.

Mr Hockey told the US newspaper that utilities and transport networks were obvious candidates for sale. The money made from the sales could be used to pay for massive infrastructure projects including a second airport in Sydney.

The Abbott has already begun moving to sell government-owned health insurer Medibank Private, in a sale that analysts believe could yield up to $4 billion.

But Mr Broad said he had a "real issue" that Australians should be "the owners, not just the workers".