Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has today contradicted his economic team on the fiscal task facing the Opposition, and has again confirmed he is not up to making the tough economic calls.
Today, when asked about the fiscal task facing the Opposition, Mr Abbott told ABC24:

Well this $70 billion figure is a fanciful figure. Its plucked from the air by government ministers.

This is in contrast to his finance spokesman Andrew Robb, who told the ABC last week:

We are saying that we need to identify up to $70 billion over the next four years.

And to his treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, who told Sunrise on August 12 that he was looking at finding $50, $60 or $70 billion of cuts in the budget.
In fact this figure was first put into the public arena by the Seven Network, via minutes from the Oppositions own budget meetings.
Both Mr Robb and Mr Hockey have been upfront about the $70 billion fiscal task facing the Opposition, just to try to reach a neutral position and to fund their commitments to date.
Mr Abbott, however, is trying to take the easy option he doesnt want to make the difficult decisions required to balance a budget. He wants to take the same approach to the economy that saw the Opposition deliver a $10.6 billion black hole at the last election.
This Opposition is focused on only two things: talking down the economy and blowing enormous holes in the budget.
The Abbott team are a risk to the budget, to our international reputation and to our economy.