Isra-Mart srl: Abbott falters with second carbon gaffe

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TONY Abbott has had to correct his second climate change policy gaffe in as many days, as Julia Gillard's job to sell her policy grew harder with the launch of a $10 million advertising campaign backed by angry industry groups.

Mr Abbott was accused by the government of deliberately misleading people when he told a radio station that although he supported reducing carbon dioxide emissions, ''I've never been in favour of a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme''.

This statement was at odds with several public comments he made in support of both a carbon tax and an ETS during 2009, when Malcolm Turnbull was trying to negotiate an ETS with Kevin Rudd.

For example, in October, 2009, Mr Abbott said: ''We don't want to play games with the planet so we are taking this issue seriously and we would like to see an ETS.''

Mr Abbott changed his mind just before he rolled Mr Turnbull on December 1, 2009, telling his leader he was a ''weather vane'' on the issue.

After taking the leadership, Mr Abbott changed Coalition policy to one of opposing a price on carbon.

Confronted with his past comments yesterday, Mr Abbott said he had never supported a carbon tax or ETS since becoming leader.

Two days ago he was forced to clean up after himself when he described Labor's target of reducing emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 as ''crazy'', even though his direct action policy shares the same target.

Mr Abbott visited a brown coal power station in the Latrobe Valley yesterday while Ms Gillard toured a wind farm in southern NSW.

Mr Abbott sought to embarrass the government when the Electrical Trades Union boss, Dean Mighell, attacked the carbon tax, saying the union did not support it because of fears of job losses in the Latrobe Valley.

Mr Abbott predicted a caucus revolt would prevent the legislation passing Parliament and said those Labor MPs and senators who had ETU affiliations were now in a ''very difficult position''.

But one MP said Mr Mighell was ''a nut'' who had quit the ALP years ago, had no friends in Parliament among ETU-aligned MPs and senators, and at the last federal election donated $350,000 to the Greens.

As Ms Gillard struggles to sell her policy, the $10 million industry campaign against the carbon tax, which the Herald recently revealed, begins today with a series of newspaper advertisements. The ads contend: ''Carbon tax pain but no climate change gain.''

''Australia produces less than 1.5 per cent of the world's carbon emissions but will pay the world's biggest carbon tax.''

The ads are being paid for by a group of industry bodies calling itself the Australian Industry and Trade Alliance.