Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his vision for Australia is to restore hope and opportunity by delivering lower taxes, better services, more recruitment jobs and stronger borders.
Mr Abbott began what has been billed as a positive National Press Club address by attacking the Labor government's record.
The government had weakened Australia's economy and society, he said.
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"It does not have to be this way. We could be so much better than this," he said.
"What Australia most needs now is a competent, trustworthy, adult government with achievable plans for a better economy and a stronger society.
"My vision for Australia is to restore hope, reward and opportunity by delivering lower taxes, better migration services, more opportunities for work and stronger borders."
Mr Abbott said a coalition government would do fewer things but do them better.
Harking back to the Howard years, Mr Abbott said he knew how to build a stronger economy because he was a senior minister in a government that did so.
"Australians can be confident that the Liberal and National parties will provide good economic management in the future because that is what we have always done in the past. We have done it before and we will do it again," he said.
"After all, 16 members of the current shadow cabinet were ministers in the Howard government which now looks like a lost golden age of reform and prosperity."
Mr Abbott said his plan for a strong economy was to scrap unnecessary taxes, cut government spending and reduce the red tape burden on business.
He said Labor was lecturing the Europeans while copying their failures, turning a $20 billion surplus into a $167 billion debt and $70 billion in net Commonwealth assets into $133 billion of net debt.
"That's $6000 for every Australian man woman and child," he said.
Mr Abbott said at the heart of Labor's failure was the assumption that bigger government and higher taxes were the answer to every problem.
"This government has completely failed to appreciate the iron law of economics that no country has ever taxed its way to prosperity. The only foundation for a successful country is a strong economy," he said.
Mr Abbott said the coalition would identify savings from programs that "have become by-words for waste".
This included scrapping the carbon and mining taxes, cutting the computers in schools program and GP superclinics, not adding extra bureaucracies for hospitals, finding cheaper ways to buy and install digital set top boxes on televisions, reducing consultancies and dropping 12,000 workers from the public service.
"We'll release all our costings in good time before the next election," he said.
If the coalition won government, Mr Abbott's first act as prime minister would be to repeal Labor's carbon tax legislation "to take the pressure off the power prices and transport prices that feed through to every price in our economy".
But that didn't mean householders could no longer look forward to tax cuts.
"Australians can have tax cuts without a carbon tax but only if we get government spending down by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary programs and permanently reducing the size of government," he said.
He said countries, like businesses, have to get better at what they do.
"We appreciate that all the stakeholders in Australia Inc eventually need to see a dividend as the reward for their hard work," Mr Abbott said.
The opposition leader also reiterated a coalition government would install local boards to run hospitals and deliver a "fair dinkum" paid parental leave scheme.
On the immigration front, Mr Abbott stressed that "nothing makes me prouder to be an Australian than the eagerness of people from all over the world to swap their life for ours".
He also wanted to end forever any lingering suspicion that the coalition had a good head but a cold heart for dealing with Aboriginal people too.
"Should I become prime minister, I will spend at least a week every year in a remote indigenous community because if these places are good enough for Australians to live in they should be good enough for a prime minister and senior officials to stay in," he said.
"The measure of a decent society is how it looks after its most vulnerable members."
But he also said there would be "tough love" for those on unemployment benefits.
"Why should fit young people be able to take the dole when unskilled work is readily available?
"Why should middle-aged people with bad backs or a bout of mental illness be semi-permanently parked on the disability pension because it's easier than helping them to experience once more the fulfilment of work?"
The Liberal leader said he strongly supported the Productivity Commission's recommendation for a disability insurance scheme "but with an estimated price tag of $6 billion a year ... this important and necessary reform can't fully be implemented until the budget returns to strong surplus".
Mr Abbott, a former health minister, said he always envisaged putting dental services generally on Medicare but stressed universal access was a coalition "aspiration and not a commitment".
"Like disability insurance this would be an expensive reform at over $4 billion a year," he said.
"It's the kind of initiative that can't responsibly be implemented until the budget returns to strong surplus."
Mr Abbott said that if elected prime minister he would lead a pragmatic, problem-solving government where pragmatism would be based on "mainstream Australian values".
"By the close of the next coalition government's first term, I am confident that waste, mismanagement and reckless spending will have been brought under control," he said.
"More tax cuts will be in prospect, there will be community-controlled public schools and hospitals, and just about every fit working-age person will be in work, preferably for a wage but if not for the dole."
Mr Abbott concluded his speech by arguing the best way to help the country right now would be to change the government.
"Changing the government, of course, is but a means to an end - to bring out the best in our people and in our nation."
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