Foreign aid spending safe, Abbott pledges

TONY Abbott has been forced to slap down speculation sparked by  Barnaby Joyce that foreign aid and public servant jobs are in the Coalition's sights.

TONY Abbott has been forced to slap down speculation sparked by his finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce that foreign aid and public servants' jobs are in the Coalition's sights.

As the Prime Minister today guaranteed ``absolutely'' that no pensioner would be worse off under the government's proposed ETS, the Liberal leader campaigned against the scheme in a Canberra supermarket today where he was confronted by an angry mum who slammed Senator Joyce as ``a menace''.

Senator Joyce was pressed yesterday to reveal how the Coalition would pay for the $3.2 billion alternative pollution fund to replace the ETS, suggesting foreign aid and public service fat were likely targets - an idea his leader today dismissed.

``The Coalition has no plans to cut the foreign aid budget and the Coalition supports the public service,'' Mr Abbott said.

``I want to be absolutely clear about this: the Coalition supports existing plans for spending on foreign aid. The Coalition supports the public service.

``I do want to make this point, though: the Rudd government are masters of waste. We saw $17 million wasted in the failed broadband tender, we've obviously got the $13 million in the failed Grocery Watch scheme.

``Their own pink batt scheme cost $3 billion. I mean, to this government $3.2 billion is a rounding error.''

Climate change is again expected to dominate Question Time, with the Rudd government re-introducing new legislation today to introduce an emissions trading scheme that reflects amendments struck with the Liberal leadership under Malcolm Turnbull.

The original legislation has previously been rejected twice by federal parliament, ensuring the Prime Minister already has a trigger for an early election if he chooses.

Yesterday Senator Joyce told the National Press Club that foreign aid decisions needed to be made carefully.

``We've got to understand that it's not our money any more, it's somebody else's money that we're sending over and if you want to keep borrowing money and sending it over, in the end you start to create problems for yourself,'' he said.

As he left the Ainslie IGA supermarket in Canberra's northern suburbs this morning, Mr Abbott was confronted by one voter who was enraged by Senator Joyce's ``frivolous and rather dismissive way he treats real initiatives to deal with climate change''.

``He described insulation as fluffy stuff that sits in the ceiling for rats and mice to urinate on,'' she said. ``I live in this city, I'm the mother of a public servant. I was enraged. He's a menace.''