Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called on the government to get its economic house in order, after the World Bank warned the global economy faced another recession.
He also said the gloomy outlook meant Labor should not go ahead with its planned $23 per tonne carbon emissions tax on the nation's top 500 polluters, due to come into effect on July 1.
"It's absolutely crystal clear that now this is the worst possible time for the world's biggest carbon tax," he told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.
"It's particularly obvious today that the government has to get its house in order."
The US-based World Bank on Wednesday slashed its global growth forecasts for the next two years by almost half and said the world was facing a recession likely to be worse than the downturn of 2008-2009.
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Mr Abbott also pointed to December jobs data released on Thursday, saying that in calendar 2011 no net new jobs were created. The Australian Bureau of Statistics report showed the jobless rate remained at 5.2 per cent, up from five per cent in January 2011.
"This is a very disappointing result and it demonstrates how important it is that it urgently get debt and deficit under control," Mr Abbott said.
"We will be in a much worse position to deal with any renewed global financial crisis that we were in 2008, because in 2008 we had a massive surplus.
"Today we have a massive deficit." The government is aiming to return the budget to surplus in 2012/13.
