The Opposition's economically reckless attempt to block lifting Australia's debt ceiling to levels that would still be amongst the lowest in the world demonstrate that Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb cannot be trusted with Australia's economy, the Greens said today.

"Blocking lifting the debt ceiling risks a devastating impact on the Australian economy, leading to massive disruption for millions of people, for absolutely no reason," Australian Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

The federal Budget is the economic tool that underpins and enables the Government's hopes, aspirations and priorities for the nation. Unless the Budget tells a strong, clear, consistent story, people are left wondering: what does the Government stands for?

Christine Milne's Budget reply speech - A Budget for the kind of country we want to be - lays out the Greens' response to the Budget and our vision of what it could have been.

As the IMF predicts oil prices will double over the next decade, the ongoing failure to fix years of under-investment in public transport has left Australians extremely vulnerable to rising fuel prices, the Greens warned today.

Greens transport spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said Commonwealth infrastructure funds are still pouring into road building while public transport lags far behind, despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund and the Government's own BITRE 117 report that the price of oil is set to skyrocket.

Reforming the excise treatment of beer from microbreweries, long lobbied for by the Australian real Craft Breweries Association and the Greens, is a good start to supporting the growth of a sustainable industry creating great regional jobs.

The production cap in the definition of microbrewery and the low excise rebate threshold meant that the excise scheme had been crippling the growth of the industry.

The Australian Greens today welcomed the Federal Government's decision to bring forward the next Defence White Paper by one year, but questioned the extraordinary $40 billion proposal for a fleet of submarines.

Greens spokesperson assisting on defence Senator Scott Ludlam said, "The 2009 White Paper was directionless and bloated, and included a hardware wishlist that was never credible. It was also startlingly undiplomatic, particularly towards China, and sidelined the findings of its own Community Consultation process."

The Greens will vigorously defend a vision for Australia that sees us properly and fairly support each other and provide universal public health and education against Joe Hockey's vision of a dog-eat-dog world where short term profits are more important than people and planet.

"The big question I've been asking people since becoming Leader of the Greens last week is what kind of country do we want to live in?" Australian Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.