Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm says Labor and the coalition have dropped the ball on tackling debt and the deficit.
The minor party is set to launch an election advertising campaign in the coming week pointing out the major parties have "lied" about improving the budget bottom line and paying off debt for years.
"Neither Liberal nor Labor seem to have made a serious commitment to even get us back to a balanced budget," Senator Leyonhjelm told AAP on Tuesday.
The NSW senator, first elected in 2013, said he was aware of Liberal members who wanted to see their party make a bigger issue of debt and deficit during the election campaign.
"We are creating space for the Liberal party to move into the small government, less spending, less taxing arena," he said.
Senator Leyonhjelm said the budget had failed to evenly spread the load of balancing the books.
"If everyone took a little cut there would be no necessity for finger-pointing about losers and winners."
The abolition of the debt ceiling - through a deal between the coalition and the Greens in December 2013 - had sent the wrong signal and it should be restored under the next government, he said.
The United States has a statutory debt limit, which is the total amount of money the government is authorised to borrow to meet its legal obligations such as social security, tax refunds and military salaries.
"I like the idea," Senator Leyonhjelm said.
"If there's an emergency there could be an emergency response, but in the absence of an emergency it imposes a discipline on the government and you have to stop kicking the can down the road."
The government ought to be paying off debt as quickly as possible, especially while global interest rates were low, he said.
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