Abbott promises to scrap carbon tax, keep assistance package Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the Labor government would never achieve a surplus in his budget reply speech on Thursday. Tony Abbott has committed a Coalition government to keeping the household assistance package linked to the carbon tax promising there will be no "nasty surprises and lazy excuses" under a government he lead. Mr Abbott also left the way clear to keep all of the government's budget cuts saying the nation's finances were in such a state of "emergency" that every saving measure could be needed. "The carbon tax will go but no one's personal tax will go up and no one's fortnightly pension or benefit will go down," Mr Abbott told Parliament on Thursday night. So with a change of government, your weekly and fortnightly budgets will be under less pressure as electricity prices fall and gas prices fall and the carbon tax no longer cascades through our economy. However a Coalition government would get rid of several measures associated with the mining tax including the twice a year supplementary allowance paid to people on benefits and would defer by two years the increase in compulsory superannuation contributions. Mr Abbott also confirmed he would scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. When combined with getting rid of the supplementary allowances and the slower start time for increased super contributions the Coalition estimates it has identified $5 billion a year in savings. Keeping the household compensation package will cost $4 billion a year. Delaying the increase in super contributions means the rise to 12 per cent would not begin under a Coalition government until 2021/2022. Under Labor it would begin in 2019/2020. The Coalition estimates this measure alone will save it $1.1 billion a year by 2016/2017. Mr Abbott repeated his commitment to winding back the increase to the humanitarian migration intake, reducing the size of the public service and ditching the low income superannuation contribution. The government spent much of Thursday challenging Mr Abbott to present a detailed economic plan. "The opportunity the leader of the opposition has tonight is to lay out his alternative plan for the nation," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in Question Time today. The government believed it had effectively "booby trapped" the budget by setting out cuts - such as scrapping the baby bonus - which Mr Abbott would find difficult to accept. However Mr Abbott said although many of the government's budget measures were "objectionable" he did not rule out keeping them. "By keeping, if needed, all Labor's budget cuts and by not implementing any of their budget spending measures unless specified, we will achieve the first duty of every government - namely, to preserve the nation's finances," Mr Abbott said. The only budget measure Mr Abbott would commit to keeping was the rise in the Medicare levy to fund DisabilityCare. Mr Abbott has said repeatedly he would not provide detailed costings of the opposition's policies until after the pre election economic and fiscal outlook is released two weeks into the federal election campaign. Poll: Would a Tony Abbott government be able to afford to scrap the carbon tax but keep its associated assistance packages? Total votes: 2299.