Australian foreign aid would be slashed under a Tony Abbott government Abbott's key policies include repealing a corporate pollution tax and another on mining profits, along with a signature paid parental leave scheme which would cost Aus$5.5 billion per year. Part of the savings include cutting the foreign aid budget by Aus$4.5 billion, with Hockey saying "we can only be a more generous nation to the rest of the world if we have a strong Australian economy." And so we are reducing the growth in foreign aid by $4.5 billion over the forward estimates to fund essential infrastructure here in Australia. More than Aus$1 billion in savings over four years are also forecast to come from the party's "Stop the Boats" policy, referring to its plan to turn back asylum-seeker boats and force those arriving onto welfare-for-work programmes. The Abbott-led conservatives said they would save Aus$1.2 billion by axing Australia's humanitarian refugee intake by 6,250 places to 13,750 and find Aus$5.2 billion by sacking 12,000 public servants. Last month, the government revealed its budget deficit has blown out to Aus$30 billion and revenues were shrinking as the mining-driven economy grapples with a slowdown in China that has seen commodities prices tumble. The opposition has been pushing the line that after six years of Labour "waste," the conservatives would be better managers of the economy, something Rudd denied on Thursday. In one of his final election pitches, he championed what Labour had achieved, pointing to reforms in disability care, education, health and climate change, while steering the country through the global financial crisis. He said Labour was "in the business of building the nation's future whereas Mr Abbott is in the business of cuts, cuts and more cuts for Australia's future." "Based on their history I genuinely fear for what the Liberals would do in office," he said.