Unkindly advice for Tony Abbott THE government has been full of advice for Tony Abbott in Thursday's question time. It wasn't meant kindly. Abbott is to sit one of his tougher examinations on Thursday night when he delivers his reply to the budget. Julia Gillard and her team of jackals lie in wait, slathering. In a way, Abbott is in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't vice. Too much detail in his policies and it will give Labor the chance to run scare campaigns based, often, on convenient distortions and misinterpretations. Too little - which is the more likely - and Labor will run scare campaigns about what he's hiding, mainly savage spending cuts and a return to the dreaded Work Choices. In between Wayne Swan and Joe Hockey arguing interminably over the face value versus the market value of government securities, we got a preview of the likely fall-out from Abbott's reply. Gillard started by telling Abbott his speech would be an opportunity for him to lay out his alternative vision so Australians could judge between them. Jenny Macklin wondered if Abbott had secret plans and Bill Shorten talked darkly about a sly and stealthy return to Work Choices. David Bradbury joined the A Team, saying Abbott's policies must be fully costed, which didn't mean going to a dodgy accountant. Bradbury thought he'd found one clue to Abbott's approach - the coalition's voting against a tax bill earlier in the day showed rorts and rip-offs would be protected. There were diversions, serious and otherwise. Independent Andrew Wilkie backed up a question about the live cattle trade by displaying a large and gory poster of a dead beast. Gillard declined his call for a personal guarantee that there'd be no more such outrages. When Hockey compared Australia's economic performance with little New Zealand's, a Labor wit suggested the reason was same sex marriages. Swan, however, was not amused. "They want to make us smaller, they want to make us more like New Zealand," he raged. The last word went to that old parliamentary warrior Bronwyn Bishop. As Gillard was once again carrying on about Abbott, Bishop interrupted with "This is question time, not lecture time."