Prime Minister Julia Gillard should not assume her carbon tax will pass through parliament and Kevin Rudd's knifing should serve as a warning, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.
Mr Abbott made the comments on Thursday as he continued campaigning against the tax.
"I will fight it in the parliament," he told reporters at Gatton, west of Brisbane.
"The next election is going to be a referendum on the carbon tax one way or the other."
He pointed to Kevin Rudd's knifing as he warned Labor not to be too sure of itself.
"Kevin Rudd proposed a mining tax before the last election," Mr Abbott said.
"That didn't go through because he was rolled by his own caucus. There is a lot of unhappiness in caucus."
TURNBULL BACKING ME: TURNBULL
Mr Abbott said every member of his team supported his opposition to the tax, including Malcolm Turnbull, who "unequivocally supports" the stance.
Mr Turnbull on Wednesday said Mr Abbott had repeatedly changed his position on how to tackle climate change, and had at one point supported a carbon tax and an emissions trading scheme.
"Then - and I'm not suggesting that he did so other than what were for good reasons - he changed his position and resigned from the shadow cabinet and challenged me for the leadership and was successful," he told ABC radio.
Mr Turnbull also refused to say straight out if he endorsed the coalition's direct action climate change policy.
Mr Abbott said on Thursday: "I think that Malcolm is doing a good job.
"All of my colleagues are doing a good job and all of my colleagues support the shadow cabinet's position," he said.
Mr Abbott also rejected Treasurer Wayne Swan's claim that his anti-carbon tax campaign was scaring consumers and was partly to blame for a drop in consumer confidence.
"What's contributing to poor confidence is the treasurer's carbon tax and if he wanted to restore confidence he could do it at a stroke," he said.
"What's hurting confidence in this country at the moment is we have a government that doesn't know what it is doing and is being driven by the Greens."
He said the tax would mean job losses and Ms Gillard must front voters to explain her broken promise on the carbon tax.
"She should face the people and explain to them the fact she said there'll be no carbon tax before the election and has done the exact opposite."
