Turnbull rejects 'disloyal' tag at a cost

AAP-May,20-Senior Liberal Malcolm Turnbull has hit back at critics who've labelled him disloyal for speaking frankly about the coalition's direct action policy to reduce carbon emissions.
But in doing so, the former party leader further questioned the long-term cost of the policy as a means of reducing dangerous greenhouse gases.
Writing on his blog, Mr Turnbull said direct action could cost taxpayers $18 billion a year by 2050 "if the goal was to cut emissions to 20 per cent of 2000 levels".
The Liberal frontbencher has been under attack this week for comments he made on ABC TV's Lateline regarding the opposition's climate plan.
Direct action focuses on storing carbon in soil, planting trees and boosting solar power.
On Friday, Mr Turnbull insisted he never argued the policy's best feature was that it could easily be terminated.
Rather, he simply stated that it was "flexible".
"How can it be contemptuous disloyalty to the supporters of direct action to repeat an argument they themselves make in support of the policy - including in the coalition's own policy document," Mr Turnbull wrote.
He also defended his statement that direct action could become "a very expensive charge on the budget" - pointing out that he was referring to the cost if the policy was adopted until 2050, not 2020 as proposed.
"The 2050 abatement task, however it is achieved, is a formidable one," Mr Turnbull wrote.
"If that were to be achieved by the government buying offsets or otherwise directly paying for abatement the cost would be enormous - at $15 a tonne it would amount to an $18 billion annual cost to the budget."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was spruiking the benefits of direct action during a tour of Sydney's western suburbs on Friday.
Visiting a door factory, he noted the business was taking direct action to reduce its emissions.
"They are using timber waste, for example, to generate some of their power," Mr Abbott told reporters.
"That is a smart, direct-action measure to reduce emissions and is a much smarter way than whacking a great big tax on people."
Mr Abbott pointed to housing industry figures which suggest a $20-a-tonne carbon price would add $6000 to the cost of a new home.
But Climate Change Minister Greg Combet was quick to rubbish that claim.
He said Mr Abbott's attacks were becoming increasingly "ridiculous, over the top and absurd".
The housing industry estimates didn't take account of the fact that many housing materials wouldn't be subject to the whole tax, the minister said through a spokesman.
"CSIRO estimates of embodied energy in constructing a new house show over half of that energy comes from products like cement, aluminium, steel, copper, glass and plastics which qualified for 94.5 per cent assistance under the (Rudd government) carbon pollution reduction scheme."