Tony Abbbott says the Coalition will work with any political party to pass laws through the Parliament, as he brushed aside suggestions his government broke pre-election promises not to raise taxes.
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But he has declined to say where his government might look for other savings, with the opposition and Senate crossbench signalling they will block a slew of savings measures announced in the budget.
Deloitte Access Economics director Chris Richardson has estimated the cost of the Senate blocking new fees and charges could blow out the budget deficit by $12 billion in the next four years, or by as much as $300 billion over a decade.
And as the government finally secured the repeal of the carbon tax in Parliament on Thursday, Mr Abbott held out the prospect of families being $550 better off, citing Treasury modelling.
“Until the next election, what I want to do, is to deliver on my commitments to the people and obviously that means getting legislation through the Parliament and I'll work with the Labor Party, I'll work with the Greens, I'll work with the crossbenchers to get good policy through the Parliament,’’ he told the ABC’s 7.30 program.
He declined to say whether health and education would be quarantined from further cuts, a day after Treasurer Joe Hockey said the government could “look at other savings initiatives that may not require legislation”.
Mr Hockey's threat to bypass the Senate by ordering spending cuts outside of parliamentary approval sparked concerns within the government over the Treasurer's judgment.
“I just don't like this constant repetition of cuts … if you look at public hospitals, they're up 9 per cent for the next three years every year,’’ he said.
“He [Mr Hockey] was obviously making the point that we need to make tough decisions, difficult decisions, tough changes now in order to avoid even tougher ones in the future and this is the irresponsibility of the Labor Party.”
Before the election, the Coalition promised there would be no personal tax increases, no cuts to health or education, no changes to pensions, that foreign aid would grow in line with inflation and that the ABC would not be cut – but all of those promises have been broken.
Asked about the decision to raise personal income taxes for the wealthy, for example, Mr Abbott said simply that “as a result of all of the changes in the budget", his government had to "reduce the overall tax burden by $5.7 billion and I think that's a tax cut”.
“People have been waiting for us to implement our policies and today a very important policy was implemented, to scrap the carbon tax, and we are also stopping the boats, we're also getting the budget back under control, we're also building the roads of the 21st century. We are honouring our commitments.”
