Prime Minister Julia Gillard has played down suggestions her new multi-party committee on climate change has a pre-determined position on a carbon price.
Members of the Coalition including shadow innovation minister Sophie Mirabella has criticised elements within Labor for conflating the issue of a belief in the climate science, with a desire to implement a price on carbon.
But Ms Gillard was responding to comments by independent MP Tony Windsor, a member of the committee, that suggested he was concerned about making the means fit the end.
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The MP, who believes a carbon price is inevitable, said it would be a mistake if the committee made "a pre-destined decision" and then discussed it for 12 months.
Ms Gillard said the committee's terms of reference required it to develop community consensus for action on climate change and also to deal with options for pricing carbon.
"Now Mr Windsor wants to work though those options," she told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
"Obviously having worked through those options, he may conclude that he doesn't believe any of the options is the way forward."
Mr Windsor said he was approaching the committee's deliberations with an open mind and urged other members, including the Australian Greens, to do likewise.
Ms Gillard welcomed that view, saying she would not start fixing rules before the committee started its work.
"We'll see where it gets to and what the outcomes are," she said.
Ms Gillard again refused to say whether the government planned to legislate a carbon price during the term of the current parliament.
