PM says day one of carbon tax is a victory as Abbott declares it started with a lie

JULIA Gillard has claimed day one of her carbon tax as a victory for Labor reform as the Coalition launched a new ad declaring "it started with a lie".

carbon tax pollution

JULIA Gillard has claimed day one of her carbon tax as a victory for Labor reform as the Coalition launched a new attack ad declaring "it started with a lie".

The Prime Minister said after years of debate on pricing carbon, "we have got this done".

She said Tony Abbott, who had supported a carbon price at the 2007 election, must now be held responsible for his "reckless" claims about the tax.

"Today and in the days to come Mr Abbott must be held to account for every false claim he has made about putting a price on carbon," Ms Gillard told the ABC's Insiders program.

But opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt rejected claims the Coalition's anti-carbon tax rhetoric had been over-blown.

He said taxpayers had already begin paying the carbon tax, which came into effect at midnight, because "everything has come up in price".

"(Australians) will have paid the tax already when they turned on the heating in the morning," he told Sky News' Australian Agenda.

"They would have paid the tax when they opened the fridge door. They'll be paying the tax to watch this television program unless they've got a pedal TV.

"It's absolutely clear that the tax is an electricity tax, and it starts to day but not finishes today."

The new opposition advertisements replay Ms Gillard's pre-election commitment that "there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead".

"Labor lied and now we're all being hit with a carbon tax - a broken promise that pushes up prices every day," it says.

Ms Gillard said the introduction of the carbon tax was the culmination of many years of debate.

"And we have got this done," she said. "Yes with a fixed price - a carbon tax if you like for the first three years - and then an emissions trading scheme to follow - the kind of emissions trading scheme that Prime Minister Howard stood for and Mr Abbott stood alongside him advocating in the 2007 election."

Ms Gillard said Labor would continue to defend the tax if it was defeated at the next election, declaring "we haven't done all this for no reason".

Mr Hunt said the Coalition would rescind the tax within six months, "with or without Labor", and industry compensation would also be axed.

"The industry compensation and the tax are linked," he said.

But he declined to say when an Abbott government would begin to pull apart the compensation scheme.

"We'll make a detailed statement after the next budget or before the next election if that occurs before the next budget, on appropriate tax cuts without a carbon tax," he said.

Greens Leader Christine Milne claimed "a great deal" of credit for the introduction of a carbon price on behalf of her party, saying it was a victory for minority government.

The Greens had played a "central" role in securing a carbon price and had negotiated its inclusion in the 2010 power sharing agreement with Julia Gillard, she said.

Senator Milne said if a majority government had been returned at the 2010 election, no steps towards carbon pricing would have taken place.

"If a majority government had been elected, we would still just have a lot of talk and not real action," she said.

Senator Milne forecast a public backlash against Tony Abbott's claims about the impact of the carbon tax, suggesting it would become more difficult for him to repeal the impost.

However, she was equivocal on whether Julia Gillard would be able to lift her polling ratings with the most recent Newspoll putting her in the political death zone of 30 per cent primary support.

Senator Milne was confident the public would come to accept carbon pricing, but said it "remained to be seen" how Ms Gillard's own political fortunes would play out given her promise before the election not to introduce a carbon tax.