Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the government is taking the process of winning parliamentary approval for its planned emissions trading scheme one step at a time.
The government will introduce its amended ETS legislation to parliament's lower house today after its initial legislation was twice rejected by the Senate last year.
Mr Rudd says the government has yet to speak to the Greens and other crossbench senators about the legislation's passage through the upper house where it needs the support of seven non-Labor senators to get through.
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The PM says the government's approach is the most effective and least costly of those on offer as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott prepares to release the coalition's climate change policy later today.
Action will requite 'hard decisions'
Mr Rudd said taking climate change action involved taking lots of hard decisions to be made.
"We're not Robinson Crusoe, there are hard decisions in any country around the world."
Those decision affected the economy "here and now" as well as into the future.
One approach was to say it was all too hard and play the fear game, Mr Rudd said.
"Or you can get on with the business of taking a decision in the national interest, to make a difference on climate change both here and abroad. That's our approach."
