Senior Opposition Frontbencher, Malcolm Turnbull, has again made clear – Tony Abbott’s Direct Action policy is a policy you have when you don’t want to take action on climate change.

When interviewed on ABC’s Lateline program last night, Mr Turnbull openly admitted that the Coalition’s policy was designed only to appeal to those who deny that climate change is real:

“...That's the - and the virtue of that - I think there are two virtues of that from the point of view of Mr Abbott and Mr Hunt.

One is that it can be easily terminated. If in fact climate change is proved to be not real, which some people obviously believe - I don't. If you believe climate change is going to be proved to be unreal, then a scheme like that can be brought to an end...”

Mr Turnbull also makes absolutely clear that taxpayers will have to foot the bill for Mr Abbott’s do nothing policy. This point was reinforced yesterday by Greg Hunt who revealed that the Coalition’s policy is like a carbon price but without the assistance the Government will offer under its proposed carbon price. Last night Mr Turnbull confirmed:

“...But the way it works is that the taxpayer - the taxpayers' money would be used to buy carbon offsets from farmers, so that as industry pollutes, the Government would then spend taxpayers' dollars to buy carbon offsets to offset that pollution...”

Mr Turnbull went on to confirm that Tony Abbott’s policy will have no positive impact on the environment or the economy, and that taxpayers will pay while there will be no incentive for business to reduce pollution:

“...Now I think those are arguments that some of the supporters of the scheme take, but it obviously - if you want to have a long-term solution to abating carbon emissions and to achieve - if you want to have a long-term technique of cutting carbon emissions, you know, in a very substantial way to the levels that the scientists are telling us we need to do by mid-century to avoid dangerous climate change, then a direct action policy where the Government - where industry was able to freely pollute, if you like, and the Government was just spending more and more taxpayers' money to offset it, that would become a very expensive charge on the budget in the years ahead...”

The fact is Tony Abbott’s policy will do nothing for the environment and will make households pay. It will cost the budget over $30 billion dollars and lead to an average tax increase of $720 per household.

In contrast the Government’s climate change policy will put a price tag on pollution, with that money going to assist households, support jobs and invest in clean energy programs. Our policy will protect the environment and it will do so at the lowest cost to the economy.