Did not address the economy at all which is not surprising after he said in London that Australia's economy was so good it is the envy of the world. Couldn't say that in Australia now could he?
So he spent the half hour doing what he is best at...attacking his opponents instead of replying to the budget....and making vague promises that we know he would never keep because they are not in writing...
ABC Online... Tony Abbott has taken a sword to Labor's budget, using his reply speech to attack the Government's "knee-jerk response" to current economic trends and accusing it of class warfare.
The Opposition Leader said Treasurer Wayne Swan's fifth budget did nothing to promote investment and once again called on Labor to dump Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
He also accused Mr Swan of brushing over the carbon tax in Tuesday's budget speech and rushing to assure Australians they would not be affected.
Mr Abbott gave only a general outline of his own approach should the Coalition be in power, saying there would be tax cuts without a carbon tax and more efficiency rather than new spending.
He declared a Coalition government would make a "strong start" and committed to have 40 per cent of year 12 students studying a language other than English within a decade, emphasising that Australia must prepare for the Asian century.
Mr Abbott spent the majority of his speech attacking Labor, taunting the Prime Minister for supporting Craig Thomson, saying a "sleaze factor" was paralysing the Government.
He also said no "genuine Labor government" would have hit families with a carbon tax and that it had played the "class war card".
How can the Treasurer be so confident of next year's skinny surplus, when this year's deficit forecast to be $23 billion in last year's budget, has now grown to $44 billion? Opposition Leader Tony Abbott "As this budget shows, to every issue, this Government's knee-jerk response is more tax, more regulation and more vitriol," he said.
"The Treasurer referred just once on Tuesday night to what he coyly called the carbon price before rushing to assure people that it wouldn't affect them.
"If the carbon tax won't hurt anyone, why is the Government topping up compensation in this budget?
"The fundamental problem with this budget is that it deliberately, coldly, calculatedly plays the class war card."
Mr Abbott said Mr Swan's emphasis on the budget surplus and its effect on interest rates papered over years of Labor government deficits.
"I applaud the Treasurer's eagerness to deliver a surplus, but if a forecast $1.5 billion surplus is enough to encourage the Reserve Bank to reduce interest rates, what has been the impact on interest rates of his $174 billion in delivered deficits over the past four years?" he said.
"How can the Treasurer be so confident of next year's skinny surplus, when this year's deficit - forecast to be $23 billion in last year's budget - has now grown to $44 billion?"
Mr Abbott said the Coalition planned to cut business red tape costs by at least $1 billion a year and slammed the costs behind the National Broadband Network.
"Why spend $50 billion on a National Broadband Network just so customers can subsequently spend almost three times their current monthly fee for speeds they might not need?" he said.
"Why dig up every street when fibre to the node could more swiftly and more affordably deliver 21st-century broadband?
"Why put so much into the NBN when the same investment could more than duplicate the Pacific Highway, Sydney's M5 and the road between Hobart and Launceston, build Sydney's M4 East, the Melbourne Metro and Brisbane's cross City Rail, plus upgrade Perth Airport and still leave about $10 billion for faster broadband?"
Video: Peter Reith reacts to budget reply (7.30)
Education initiative Mr Abbott said the study of foreign languages in Australia was in "precipitous decline" and that the proportion of year 12 students studying a foreign language had dropped from about 40 per cent in the 1960s to 12 per cent now.
Mr Abbott said every student starting in preschool should have an exposure to foreign languages.
"If Australians are to make their way in the world, we cannot rely on other people speaking our language," he said.
"This will be a generational shift because foreign language speakers will have to be mobilised and because teachers take time to be trained.
"My commitment tonight is to work urgently with the states to ensure that at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students are once more taking a language other than English within a decade."
Education Minister Peter Garrett says he doubts that commitment given the Howard government's record, saying Mr Abbott was in a government that cancelled funding for a national language school strategy.
Abbott's 'arrogance' Finance Minister Penny Wong accused Mr Abbott of arrogance because he did not outline any spending cuts or his plan to return to surplus.
She says it is hypocritical for the Opposition Leader to accuse Labor of conducting class warfare.
"The only class warfare that is being waged is by Mr Abbott against working families," she said.
"Class warfare is Tony Abbott walking into the House of Representatives and voting against a schoolkids bonus for low and middle-income Australia."
Meanwhile, Greens leader Christine Milne used her budget reply in the Senate to implore the Government to ditch its plan for a surplus at any cost.
Senator Milne says both the Government and Opposition are too focused on the dollar figures rather than the social and environmental welfare of the nation.
She has appealed to the Government to reinstate the foreign aid targets and welfare measures that have been scrapped in order to balance the books.
"If we sacrifice our welfare, our health, our future on the altar of one economic measure, we've fundamentally misunderstood why we humans created this idea that we call the economy in the first place," she said.
