Bob Brown has lashed out at the Opposition's push for an early election, saying the Greens are determined the minority Labor Government they support will run a full term.

This forced Prime Minister Julia Gillard to reject suggestions the Greens were determining the election timetable, saying her Government will run three years and "I will decide when the election is on".

In his budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott put his case for an early poll by sharpening his attack on the carbon tax and demanding the Government seek a mandate.

"Only an election could make an honest politician of this Prime Minister," he said last night.

"Only an election can give Australia a government with authority to make the tough decisions needed to build a stronger country and to help Australians get ahead."

But Senator Brown made it clear that if Mr Abbott wants an early election, he will not be supported by the Greens who will control the Senate from July and support the Government with one vote in the House of Representatives.

"Tony Abbott, there will be no election," he told a news conference in Canberra.

"We are not going to put Mr Abbott's overweening personal interest in a power grab under any priority because it leads to instability, self-promotion at the expense of the nation."

Senator Brown says that Mr Abbott did not present a costed budget last night and is "an opposition leader who should stay in opposition".

Finance Minister Penny Wong has accused Tony Abbott of "mindless negativity" after he delivered his budget reply speech.

Mr Abbott has attacked the Federal Government's budget saying it would make life harder for Australian families.

But Ms Wong said Mr Abbott has failed the test of an alternative leader.

"Mr Abbott failed to put forward a single new policy, a single new save or a single tough decision," she said.

"Tony Abbott's budget in reply shows he is all opposition and no leader."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/12/3215504.htm

Paul Keating once complained to Bob Hawke that Australia had never had a great Prime Minister, sending Hawke into a tailspin about the virtues of John Curtin.

But here's another question. Have we had a great, or even a halfway decent, opposition leader?

Most of them since the 1970s don't rate highly simply because they never achieved the ultimate prize - Bill Hayden, Andrew Peacock, Alexander Downer, John Hewson, Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Mark Latham, Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull.

Bob Hawke can't be rated in that role either because Malcolm Fraser called an election the day he succeeded Hayden. Hawke never sat a single day in the parliament as opposition leader. Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Julia Gillard inherited the top job in government so they never led their parties in opposition.

And Peter Costello wouldn't take it on, so we'll never know about him.

That leaves just two others in 40 years - three if you include Tony Abbott - and I'm coming to him.

Two: John Howard and Kevin Rudd. Both were very good opposition leaders and both became Prime Minister.

If they had one thing in common it was a willingness, indeed an obsessive need, to engage intellectually with the media and the public. They sought you out not only to put the boots into the government of the day, but to debate the big issues facing the country. Both were economically rational and both came to the highest office in the land off the back of a positive personal agenda. Both were more than willing to engage their opponent on the detail and the substance of economic decision making.

Based on this week's performance, Tony Abbott still sits with the long list of low achievers.

His populist, contradictory, rhetorical and shallow analysis of the budget has been matched only by the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey.

For months, both have demanded deep cuts to the budget. But when the government made a modest attempt to prune welfare, they described it as war on the middle classes.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/13/3216341.htm

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