PM vows to tough it out on carbon tax

March 8 (AAP)-Prime Minister Julia Gillard has vowed to win the debate on a carbon tax despite public opinion turning against her.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Ms Gillard avoided mentioning a disastrous opinion poll showing Labor's support at an all-time low.
Instead, she promised to be stoic as the government moves to bring in a carbon price from July 2012.
"It's one that I am determined to win," Ms Gillard said.
"I know that the Australian people will ultimately be confident enough to take this step of pricing carbon."
Ms Gillard said she would match Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's scare campaign with reason and facts.
Mr Abbott predicted the government would launch a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign to sell the unpopular carbon policy.
"I'm running a truth campaign against the carbon tax because the truth campaign appears to be having an impact, I imagine they will run an ad campaign," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"The one thing that these guys specialise in is ad campaigns using taxpayers' money."
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has declined to say whether the government will use taxpayer funds to sell the policy, as the Howard government did with the GST in 2000.
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown applauded Ms Gillard for speaking strongly from the US and insisting the government would stay the course on a carbon price.
"I didn't hear Julia Gillard wavering one bit," he told reporters in Hobart.
"The Abbott scare campaign - false as it is - has scared some people but it won't last long."
He said he expected support to turn around once voters became wise to the coalition's own climate change policy which, he argues, will drive up the cost of living - but with no compensation.
West Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam said Ms Gillard was "gutsy".
"Two of the golden rules in politics are that you don't offend powerful, incumbent, vested interests and you don't tell people their lives are going to get more expensive," he told Fairfax Radio on Tuesday.
"So I think it's quite gutsy for the prime minister to do both of these things in the same week, and of course these have been immediately misinterpreted."
Voters don't seem to agree.
A Newspoll released on Tuesday showed Labor's primary vote plunging to 30 per cent - its lowest level since the poll began in 1985.
The government's popularity rating has fallen by six percentage points since the carbon tax deal with the Greens and independents was announced two weeks ago.
Ms Gillard still holds a 45 per cent to 36 per cent lead as preferred prime minister over Mr Abbott, who has called for a US Tea Party-style "people's revolt" against the tax, but even this figure is down 13 points since February.
A separate Essential Media poll shows 45 per cent of respondents believe Australia should delay a carbon tax until the US does something comparable.
Weighing into the debate, a European Union climate expert described Australian opposition to a carbon tax as bizarre.
Jill Duggan, who managed Britain's initial emissions trading scheme, said there was an incorrect perception that Australia would be going it alone if it priced carbon.
"Coming from Europe, that sounds slightly bizarre, because there are 30 countries in Europe that have had a carbon price ... since the beginning of 2005," she told reporters in Canberra.
Ms Duggan, who spoke with Mr Combet by phone on Tuesday, said Britain's Conservatives had been cooperative in response to plans to price carbon.
"During the last Labour government, it wasn't Conservatives saying, 'You shouldn't be doing this,'" she said, when asked about Mr Abbott's campaign against a carbon tax.
"They said, 'You should be doing more, you should be doing it faster.'"