They faced off in the battle for Capricornia last year and now the two political combatants go toe to toe on the budget with Labor's Peter Freeleagus accusing sitting MP Michelle Landry of hypocrisy.

IF CAPRICORNIA MP Michelle Landry was being fair dinkum in her comments on Monday, that she doesn't want to see battlers slugged by the Abbott Government's first budget, then she should have crossed the floor and vote against it in Parliament.

Before the last election Ms Landry and the Coalition promised no new taxes.

They have broken that promise in the budget and have introduced new taxes. It is as simple as that, a broken promise. Income levies is a new tax. Increasing fuel excise is a new tax. The GP tax is a new tax.

In a region like Central Queensland the raising of fuel excise is going to be a massive hit on every family's budget, especially pensioners, and a big hit to business. 

Reducing Family Tax Benefit will make life even tougher for families. Making it more expensive to go to the doctor will also make life tougher for Central Queensland families.

By voting to pass the budget she is voting to make life harder for local family budgets. 

Before the last election Ms Landry said she was campaigning to ease the cost of living pressures. Now she is talking about making families in her electorate swallow budget "medication" and raising the cost of living.

No amount of rhetoric about a budget emergency or debt gets Ms Landry off the hook for breaking her election promises. Australia has a triple-A credit rating. 

To say otherwise is to be deliberately false with the electorate. Ms Landry should be honest with her electorate.

Michelle Landry, Member for Capricornia

Every month, Australians are paying $1billion in interest on Labor's debt alone.

In Capricornia, we could build the equivalent of four Bruce Hwy Yeppen flood plain upgrades, per month, with money like that.

We could even build many NRL football stadiums and hospitals with money like that.

Labor ran up five record deficits. Never once did they rebalance the bank account with a surplus. The debt Pete's Pals' generated equates to $25,000 per person or $100,000 per family of four.

If the Coalition took no action, projected debt would hit $667 billion.

This is on top of the carbon tax that Pete's Labor Party promised they wouldn't introduce - but slugged us with anyway. Carbon tax adds more to your electricity bill, your business costs and the cost of running industries, which create jobs.

Every year, Pete's pals' carbon tax is a $9 billion hit on the economy and it costs an average family $550. We will scrap the carbon tax.

The Abbott Government's first budget is laying the foundations for a strong and prosperous economy with less debt.

I am proud to be part of a team that made a commitment to fix the budget.

We couldn't move forward as a nation with Labor's choking debt round our neck.

At the election, the Coalition made a promise to get the budget back under control, as well as scrap the carbon tax, end the waste, stop the boats and build the roads of the 21st century. This budget keeps that pledge.

Nobody said the process of fixing Labor's debt would be easy.