Coalition will turn budget around: Hockey Australians can go to the election confident a coalition government can afford its policies and improve the federal budget, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says. The opposition waited until two days before the election campaign to release its policy costings and announce a bottom line injection of $6 billion by 2016/17, if it wins government. "We are turning around the direction of the budget," Mr Hockey said in Melbourne on Thursday. But Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Hockey's costings amounted to a few "flimsy bits of paper" that didn't give voters the necessary detail. "What are they hiding?" he said. If Mr Hockey becomes treasurer, he says federal budget spending of $33 billion will be more than offset by cuts or savings of $40 billion over four years. The biggest single saving - $14.7 billion - will come from scrapping Labor's mining tax package and related spending measures, such as the Schoolkids Bonus, small business tax breaks and the low-income superannuation top-up. Scrapping the carbon tax will cost about $6 billion, because a coalition government will have to forego revenue of $13.6 billion and still pay for household compensation and pension increases. But the Parliamentary Budget Office, which assessed the coalition's costings, estimates the budget would be $1.1 billion better off due to a "surge" in economic activity from dumping carbon pricing. The estimate wasn't included in the opposition's costings tables. The coalition estimates its $5.5 billion a year paid parental leave scheme, to be partly funded by a 1.5 per cent levy on 3000 companies, will generate a net $1.7 billion budget benefit by 2016/17 as that tax revenue begins to outstrip running costs. However, Mr Hockey said the current growth rate of Australia's foreign aid budget wasn't feasible so this would be reduced to free up $4.5 billion for other priorities such as road projects. "Only the coalition will live within its means and get Australia back on the path of strong economic growth," he said. Mr Albanese criticised the aid budget cut and warned the coalition was also planning to dump $4.7 billion worth of rail infrastructure projects. "Ripping billions of dollars out of the infrastructure budget ... would be an act of economic vandalism," he said. Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia CEO Lee White said while budget cuts were necessary due to the challenging fiscal conditions, cutting foreign aid was a "big step in the wrong direction." "We have a moral responsibility as a wealthy nation to support those that need assistance," he said. As previously announced, the coalition also plans to lower the company tax rate to 28.5 per cent, from 30 per cent, at a cost of $4.9 billion. BDO national tax director Lance Cunningham said the coalition was "tinkering round the edges" of a tax system that needed more fundamental reforms. The Tax Institute's tax counsel Deepti Paton agreed, saying without a commitment to reform, the tax system would become "a handbrake on growth over the coming decades." The coalition didn't commit to a timeframe to deliver a budget surplus. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has previously said a coalition government would be on track to a "believable" surplus by the end of its first three-year term. The pre-election economic and fiscal outlook forecast a $4.2 billion surplus in 2016/17.