Abbott says Labor a threat to future government Liberal leader Tony Abbott says he is confident he can grow as prime minister. TONY Abbott has accused Labor of "booby trapping the future" by leaving the next government with big spending plans that will make the Budget difficult to manage. The Liberal leader also says he has softened his image as a political "hard man" and was confident "I can grow as Prime Minister." But Employment Minister Bill Shorten said the Opposition was arrogant about winning the election and playing "hide and seek" with its policies. Mr Abbott insisted he did not take the September 14 poll for granted. "It's never easy to win an election from Opposition," he told ABC TV's 7.30 program. This is a pretty hopeless government but they're pretty clever at politics. I suspect every day they will be out there (a) milking incumbency, (b) demonising the Opposition, (c) mortgaging the future in the hope of buying a few votes and (d) booby-trapping the future in the hope that an incoming government will be saddled with a whole lot of commitments that make managing the Budget very, very difficult indeed. Responding to a question about his self-proclaimed image as a "hard man" in the Howard Government, Mr Abbott said voters accepted that people can change. I'd like to think that I have grown as Opposition Leader and I am confident that I can grow as Prime Minister, should the public give me that extraordinary honour. Mr Abbott campaigned in Heathmont in the marginal Victorian seat of Deakin, held by Labor by 0.6 per cent. Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited the seat twice in the past week, including holding a community cabinet meeting in Ringwood and appearing in the Herald Sun/Sky News People's Forum in Nunawading on Monday. Mr Abbott continued to face questions about his plan to increase tax on the 3200 biggest companies to fund a more generous paid parental leave scheme. He said the Coalition would also give all businesses a modest tax cut but would not "play silly games" to speculate about the detail and abolishing the carbon and mining tax would also help business. While Mr Abbott hit out at the government announcing big spending plans, he also challenged Ms Gillard to match his promise to put $1.5 billion towards building the East-West Link Tunnel in Melbourne. The PM was in Rockhampton where she announced a 10-year plan to spend $4 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway. Mr Shorten told Sky News it had been 85 days since Ms Gillard announced the election date but Mr Abbott had still not released his industrial relations policy despite saying a month ago it would be out within weeks. " (They are) sufficiently arrogant at taking the electorate for granted that they think they can just sneak in on a small target strategy," Mr Shorten said. The Liberals hide their policy and we've got to seek it.