Carbon tax 'octopus' hits economy: Abbott

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has told reporters in Sydney that any government that thinks it's gotten away with an unpopular carbon tax is likely to keep increasing taxes.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has renewed calls for terror attack victims to be compensated.

Mr Abbott says the federal government believes it has "got away" with the carbon tax and will impose more taxes.

Visiting a seafood distributor in Sydney on Thursday, Mr Abbott said businesses were experiencing a "triple whammy" of higher power prices, more costly refrigerant gases and, from 2014, an increase in transport costs due to the carbon tax.

"What people are starting to understand is this is an octopus embracing the whole of our economy," Mr Abbott told reporters.

He said observers of parliament would have seen Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Environment Minister Tony Burke saying "the carbon tax doesn't matter ... the carbon tax hasn't hurt".

"You know what that means - that means taxes are going up," Mr Abbott said.

"Any government that thinks it's got away with the carbon tax is going to put up taxes again and again."

He linked reports Labor was considering higher taxes on superannuation for the wealthy, in a bid to shore up the projected 2012/13 budget surplus, as examples of its "class war taxes".