No carbon price under coalition: Abbott

The coalition has upped the ante in its opposition to imposing a carbon price on
Australians.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott strengthened his resolve on the issue on Sunday.
"There will be no carbon price on consumers under a coalition government, none
whatsoever," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has yet to announce her climate change policy but Mr
Abbott is certain it will include a price on carbon.
"Julia Gillard says she wants a carbon price, she supports a carbon price and she
will bring in a carbon price," Mr Abbott said.
"And there is no way that this government should go right through to polling day
without coming clean on exactly what its plans are to impose a carbon tax on
everything and everyone."
It was highly unlikely countries such as India and China would agree to a carbon
price, Mr Abbott said.
"In order to raise their standards of living, they are inevitably going to become
much bigger users of energy over time and the idea that they are going to deny
themselves the kind of standard of living that other countries enjoy, it's just not
very plausible and it's not going to happen anytime soon."
If ever there was international agreement on the issue the coalition would address
it then.
"If ... and let's cross that bridge when we ever come to it," Mr Abbott told Sky
News earlier on Sunday.
Mr Abbott got himself into hot water saying the Climate Institute said the
coalition's policy was better than Labor's.
"The other thing I say is that the Climate Institute actually said the coalition had
a better policy on this because we actually have a policy to reduce emissions by
five per cent of 2020 but we can do it without imposing higher costs on consumers."
But Climate Institute chief executive John Connor said Mr Abbott was misguided on a
number of fronts.
"It's either a misunderstanding or misleading at worst to interpret the work that
we've done to say the coalition are on track for their targets or somehow has a
credible or acceptable plan on pollution and climate change," Mr Connor told AAP.
The institute had been explicit in saying neither of the major parties had credible
policies for the targets in terms of pollution levels, Mr Connor said.
China has been closing down pollution intensive steel mills and power plants,
setting pollution standards and has renewable energy targets.
"They have got a number of policies which amount to a carbon price," Mr Connor said.
"They are certainly taking action and they understand that taking action on
pollution and climate change is part of a better standard of living."
Mr Abbott's comments were contradictory because by supporting renewable energy the
coalition would essentially support a carbon price, Mr Connor said.
His comments also showed cracks in the Liberal policy on the issue because Joe
Hockey had spoken about the need for a price on carbon in May.
"To me it's the most extreme anyone from the coalition has been about that saying
there will never be a price on carbon."
Greens senator Christine Milne said it was clear Mr Abbott had no idea about climate
change.
"While both Labor and Liberals dig us deeper and deeper into coal, China and India
are leaving us behind," Senator Milne said.
Mr Abbott and Ms Gillard would undermine a global treaty on pricing carbon if they
continued to say Australia would not act on the issue, Senator Milne said.