All the fanfare normally attending the first sitting of the Parliament were present, punctuated by a bible reading that delved into "betrayal", yet for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the first order of business is to focus on the economy.

Brushing aside the divisive rumour of leadership strife within Labor, Ms Gillard insisted that the Parliament needs to train its full energy on matters of the economy, which global experts said could experience a serious tailspin mode this year that recession could never be discounted at all.

It will be a year-long debate about the Australian economy, the Prime Minister promises, quickly adding that the government should find it easy to defend its position that has so far resulted to a robust economy amidst the difficulties faced by other nations around the world.

In expressing her total confidence that the Labor-led government has been performing well, Ms Gillard stressed that much of the debate will centre on how her government presided over economic growth that created more jobs and cared for the environment.

"It will be a debate between our approach in supporting jobs, just as we did during the global financial crisis, or taking the approach now being recommended by the opposition of not supporting jobs and particularly seeking to slash jobs in the car industry," Ms Gillard told the Parliament on Monday night.

"It will be an economic debate between our plans for a clean energy future or the opposition's plans to rip tax cuts away from working Australians," the Prime Minister added.

Not bent on backing off, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott accepted the challenge posed by Ms Gillard, whose minority government he called a failed experiment.

The Coalition, Abbott said on Tuesday, is on a mission to establish "a responsible, prudent and frugal government" that Australians can rely on.

He called on Ms Gillard to go ahead with her plans to make the economy the centre of parliamentary debate this year, stressing that such spectre will "make my day."

However, Abbott's position economic program is all talk and wanting in action, according to Finance Minister Penny Wong.

Wong cited the statement made by opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb on ABC wherein the Liberal frontbencher hinted that achieving budget surplus on the Coalition's first term would "depend ... as there's so much uncertainty around the numbers."

"Tony Abbott talks about the hard decisions but his finance spokesman has admitted today that the Liberals won't commit to a surplus in the first term of a Coalition government," The Canberra Times reported Wong as saying.

The Parliament resumed session with Ms Gillard and Labor getting significant boosts on the latest poll numbers that showed the government closing in on the Coalition lead though the latter would still win if elections were held shortly.

The Prime Minister, however, saw her numbers improving as Australian voters deemed her more fit to govern, with preference of 48 percent over Abbott's 46 percent.

Nielsen said that Ms Gillard gained six points while Abbott stalled but the enemy could be within, basing too on the latest survey commissioned by The Herald Sun.

Voters clearly preferred Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd over Ms Gillard, handing him a lead of more than 20 points, which experts said only emboldened supporters of the former Prime Minister to muster the sufficient number to mount a credible leadership challenge that could topple the Gillard government.

Reports have indicated that Rudd may make a move prior to the Queensland state election on March, supposedly to shore up the chance of Labor retaining government power in the crucial state.