News Service from House Harris

Fed: Rudd should get off bulldozer and talk: Turnbull

SYDNEY, Feb 7 AAP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should "get off his bulldozer" and speak to the coalition about the government's $42 billion stimulus package, opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull says.

Mr Rudd had earlier told Malcolm Turnbull to "get out of road" and stop holding up the nation building and jobs package as the government prepares to work out a deal with cross bench Senators to get it through the Senate next week.

But Mr Turnbull said the coalition did not believe in "mortgaging the future of our children".

"He should get off his bulldozer, step down and talk," Mr Turnbull told AAP in Sydney on Saturday.

"He says he's a leader. Real leaders know if you want people to agree with you you've got to be prepared to sit down, respect their views, sit down and negotiate with them and that's what we're inviting Mr Rudd to do."

He said the size of the package was too big and the composition was wrong.

"The problem is not only that labor's spending too much, but it's spending ineffectively.

"They have nothing to show for the $10 billion they spent in December, nothing. There is no evidence it created one job, let alone the 75,000 they promised."

Mr Turnbull did not outline how much the coalition would spend, but said the government was spending much more than the $42 billion package.

"They are on a trajectory to go to that $200 billion mark and beyond it," he said.

"They have mailed out to people one per cent of GDP in December and they want to do a bit more than one per cent of GDP in March, so what's going to happen in June and September."

The government was on a "very misguided track" of borrowing money, he said.

"It will not be effective, it hasn't created jobs and it won't create jobs and all it will do is mortgage the future of our children and damage our economy in the long run."