Finance Minister Penny Wong, said Mr Abbott has provided little information on what his budget would look like.
"Tony Abbott's budget-in-reply shows he is all opposition and no leader," said Ms Wong.
"He'd rather block surpluses than build them; he'd rather wreck budgets than write them. He failed the test of an alternative
leader."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott called for a a fresh election after saying the coaltion government would ease cost of living pressures and bring down debt.
"As things stand, we have a parliament that can't make decisions people respect, a prime minister who looks like she's not up to the job and a minority government that's increasingly seen as an experiment that's failed.
"If Australia goes on like this for another two-and-a-half years, what is currently a great country with a lousy government could slide into a morass of indecision and paralysis."
However, Mr Abbott offered little policy detail in his budget reply speech.
Pitching his fiesty address to "forgotten families", Mr Abbott said he was not seeking to set out an alternative budget but rather an alternative vision for the nation.
Mr Abbott did not outline his position on specific budget measures, saying the coalition would do so when they came before parliament.
He also resisted the government's call to deliver a list of specific savings and spending measures.
But he did make some grand promises, most notably that spending, debt and taxes would always be lower under a coalition government.
"People can also be confident that economic growth will be higher and more sustainable under the coalition," he said.
A coalition government would "never make things harder" for families, he said.
"I know you are struggling under a rising cost of living. And I know you are sick of a government that doesn't get value from your taxes.
"My commitment to the forgotten families of Australia is to ease your cost of living pressures."
Mr Abbott promised to reduce regulatory costs to business by at least $1 billion a year.
He also called on the government to introduce mandatory one-year minimum sentences for all people smugglers and ten-year mandatory sentences for repeat offenders.
Mr Abbott said Prime Minister Julia Gillard had to seek a mandate, in particular to introduce a carbon price.
Ms Gillard criticised Mr Abbott's speech saying he had no suggestions to an alternative budget.
"He talked about forgotten families but he forgot how to return to surplus."
Greens Leader Bob Brown used his own budget reply speech in the Senate to attack big mining.
Senator Brown questioned why so few Australians were benefiting from the nation's natural wealth.
"There is a problem in the revenue of this budget, not a problem with spending," he said.
Earlier, the coalition went on the attack over the debt ceiling being jacked up from $75 billion two years ago to $250 billion.
Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb said the government could not claim to be tightening its belt, and forcing families to do so, while lifting the cap on its own gross debt - which as of Thursday stood at $187 billion.
"If ever there was a symbol of this government's addiction to spending and borrowing then surely this must be it," Mr Robb said.
Ms Gillard told reporters the summer of natural disasters, the impact of the Japanese earthquake and falling revenues were
affecting the budget.
"We need to spend more, of course, to rebuild Queensland, rebuild the nation," she said.
"I think Australians will understand those kind of factors have hit into the budget."
The government's net debt, which is due to peak at $106 billion in 2011/12 with an annual interest bill of $5.5 billion, would be repaid before the end of the decade, she said.
Share
