Once again the Leader of the Opposition was alarming innocent bystanders as he pursued his mindless mobile scare campaign on the carbon price today.

Tony Abbott visited David Smash Repairs in Queanbeyan where he blatantly exaggerated the impact of the carbon price on electricity prices for this small business.

The truth - which Mr Abbott has become a stranger to - is that less than 1000 big polluters will pay the carbon price. David Smash Repairs is not one of them.

The Government has been up front that businesses like David Smash Repairs will face some indirect cost increases and they may pass these on to their customers. That is why the Government will provide generous assistance for those customers, the nation’s householders.

On his claim that jobs will be lost, it is highly doubtful that people will be taking their cars overseas to be fixed any time soon.

The Government has made it crystal clear that more than 50 per cent of the carbon price revenue raised from big polluters will go to householders to cover any price impacts and that this assistance will be permanent.

Little wonder Mr Abbott conveniently ignored this fact when he went to David Smash Repairs: Nationals Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce had just confirmed that a Coalition government would take back any tax cuts or pension increases delivered by the Gillard Government under the carbon price.

That is because Mr Abbott wants to trouser billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to meet the costs of his environmentally ineffective and economically inefficient subsidies-for-polluters policy.

Under his policy, the costs of lowering carbon pollution are placed squarely on average householders and fiscal discipline is sacrificed for political opportunism.

Professor Ross Garnaut, in his latest independent review of climate change policy, disparaged Mr Abbott’s subsidies-for-polluters policy.

He said: “Direct action would have some rationale if we wanted to pretend to take action against climate change but not do much.”

In other words, as former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said today: “Mad as a cut snake.”