Opposition carbon tax claims untrue: PM

25 Jun 2012, 5:16 pm   -   Source: AAP

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the opposition's claims that the carbon tax will bring significant damage to the Australian economy will never happen.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the opposition's claims Labor's carbon pricing regime will cause significant damage to the Australian economy are untrue.

The federal government's fixed price of $23 a tonne on carbon emissions will begin on July 1 before shifting to a market based system in 2015.

Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott has regularly stated the carbon tax would hurt the Australian economy, cause businesses to close down and result in job losses.

"None of those claims to try to induce fear in the Australian community are true, have ever been true or will ever be true," Ms Gillard told ABC Television on Monday.

"They are all just puffed false claims for political campaigning purposed by the leader of the opposition."

Ms Gillard also said she did not believe Mr Abbott would scrap carbon pricing if he became prime minister.

Mr Abbott has said the first act of a coalition government would be to enact legislation to repeal the carbon tax and if this was not successful, he would call a double dissolution election.

"We will see a little fiddle here, a little fudge there but he won't take away carbon pricing," Ms Gillard said.

"He has been on the record in the past supporting carbon pricing as has his whole political party under the leadership of prime minister John Howard."

The government said 294 firms would pay the carbon tax, with steelmakers, miners and electricity generators among the top emitters.

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