Abbott taunts Shorten over budget deficits

Tony Abbott has used parliament to taunt Bill Shorten over the opposition leader's refusal to take any responsibility for federal budget deficits.

"Thirteen times he slid around, he evaded, he obfuscated and then ... on the 13th time, on the 13th time he finally said no," the prime minister said of an interview the opposition leader gave to 3AW in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The Australian people, however, did not have selected amnesia and knew that Labor created an "absolute mountain of debt and deficit".