Australia's economy is stable enough, as compared to the rest of the world, but former Treasurer Peter Costello is reluctant to credit the Labor government, insisting that the country benefitted from efforts of previous governments.

"The economy was the envy of the world and it still is the envy of the world ... and that took quite a long time to put in place," The Australian reported Costello as saying on Monday.

He added that while the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard could not claim sole authorship of Australia's relative prosperity, the current batch of opposition figures seemed to have let a good opportunity to pass by when they skipped support for the statutory individual contracts.

In Costello's view, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott needs to be more decisive in adapting policies then implemented by the previous Liberal-led government, which he noted should be a right fit at a time when national productivity is on the decline.

Costello hinted that the opposition leader may have overlooked the functional policies that were already in place when he left office as the longest serving federal treasurer.

"If people don't want to use labour market flexibility, well, they'll obviously think of some other weapon ... I can't think what it is but I'm sure there is one because these are greater minds than me," Costello told The Australian.

Yet Costello's harshest words appear to be focused on the man now holding his former job, Wayne Swan, who he described as a passive beneficiary of the Liberal economic policies that cushioned the impacts of the global financial crisis in 2009.

Brushing aside Swan's recent naming as Euromoney's 'Finance Minister of the Year', Costello insisted that the present treasurer merely inherited a robust Australian economy yet seems unwilling to actually roll out genuine tax reforms if only to sustain the country's financial gains.

Real reform, according to him, is represented by the GST, which eliminated unnecessary tax policies and rationalised spending - that for him "was the mother of all tax reforms ... nearly cost us government, certainly cost me 10 years of my life."

For the government to introduce new taxes, such as the carbon tax, instead of reforming the system is foolish, Costello said, though he is also reluctant to endorse Abbott's alternative of offering compensation for lesser carbon emission, declaring, "I don't know anything about direct action."