Labor marks five years in office

At a protest against state government budget cuts in Brisbane on Saturday, Mr Swan says the government had achieved plenty since 2007.

"Over the past five years we've seen the most turbulent period in the global economy since the Great Depression," he told reporters.

"In that five years ... Australia avoided recession, most other developed economies did not."

Mr Swan also pointed to the rollout of the National Broadband Network and the introduction of the carbon price as major achievements.

The treasurer even paid tribute to the efforts of former prime minister Kevin Rudd, against whom he launched a blistering attack during the leadership contest in February.

"Our previous prime minister Mr Rudd made, I believe, very, very substantial contribution to ensuring that our country didn't go into recession," Mr Swan said.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said all the government had achieved was "five years of backflips and broken promises".

Speaking in Sydney on Saturday, he said Labor had betrayed the public and wasted their money, citing the carbon tax as a key example.

"This Government will never ever deliver an honest budget surplus," he told reporters. "This Government has already given us the four biggest deficits in Australia's history, on top of the four biggest surpluses which Peter Costello and John Howard delivered in their last four years.

"This Government says that they are going to give us a micro-surplus this year, but if it happens, and I doubt it will, it will be on the back of cooking the books."

He admitted, however, that there were some things that the government had done "acceptably enough".

"There's much routine business of government which is taken place acceptably enough, it always does and it always will," he said.

"I have some hope that one of the significant things that might emerge next week is a bipartisan approach to trying to secure a successful referendum to recognised indigenous people in the constitution."