Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he knows Labor didn't mean to take Australia into the current budget situation.
But he said good intentions were not enough to manage an economy, and the former government gave the six biggest deficits in Australian history.
Addressing the annual minerals industry parliamentary dinner, he said the budget was a necessary response to an inherited debt and deficit disaster.
"I want to assure you that as far as this government is concerned, the budget is nothing like an indulgence to keep economists happy," he said.
Mr Abbott said some of the budget changes were very difficult and hard for people to get their minds around.
"These are, I have to say, testing times for our government but they're also testing times for our country, but I am confident that our character ... our country's character is up for these changes."
Testing times perhaps, but Mr Abbott was on friendly territory, with Minerals Council of Australia chairman Andrew Michelmore endorsing the government's moves to abolish the carbon and mining taxes and streamline project approval processes.
"With our natural resources, technical skills and innovation we should be number one in the world but we are not," he said.
"It's therefore timely that we hear from our prime minister tonight whose agenda to remove roadblocks to growth and restore predictability are so strongly supported by the industry."
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