Crossbench reaction to federal budget

MINOR PARTY AND CROSSBENCH REACTION TO THE 2015 BUDGET

OVERALL BUDGET

"I think it's better than last year."

- Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer

"Close, but no cigar."

- Independent senator Nick Xenophon

"Vastly worse. Last year they had a serious go at returning to surplus. This year they're not even trying."

- Liberal Democratic Party senator David Leyonhjelm

"There's no vision, no direction and no new sources of revenue from the big end of town. This budget takes more money from the pockets of nurses and charity workers than it does the big miners or big banks."

- Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale

RETURN TO SURPLUS

"They're only going to do that if there are no tax cuts. We're suffering seriously from bracket creep, we've going to have low and middle income earners paying high rates of tax, highly politically unpopular. Frankly, I don't think they're going to get away with it."

- Senator Leyonhjelm

"I just can't see how they're going to get there. It's very contingent on a whole range of measures. I think that the treasurer is dreaming if he thinks he's going to get there."

- Senator Xenophon

SMALL BUSINESS TAX CUTS

"I'm not impressed by favouring small business over big business. This is a penalty for being successful in my opinion."

- Senator Leyonhjelm

"Tax is not the problem, they need to stimulate the economy. You've got to have the money to spend before you can write it off. At the moment small business is not making a profit."

- Clive Palmer