On Monday morning, Mr Shorten said he would consult with the caucus before making a big policy statement but noted he backed a price on carbon pollution. Prime Minster Tony Abbott calls on Labor to support the new government's plan to scrap the carbon tax. Credit:Andrew Meares The Abbott government's first item of parliamentary business will be the legislation to abolish the carbon tax. By bringing the carbon tax repeal legislation forward immediately, the Prime Minister faces a hostile Senate, with Greens and Labor likely to oppose the repeal. The Prime Minister also told reporters on Tuesday that his strong expectation is that the new parliament would sit for the first time on the week beginning November 11, provided the writs were returned. The new parliament cannot meet until all the writs are returned and at the moment, the writs for Queensland have been delayed by the recount in the Queensland seat of Fairfax.

Mr Abbott has previously indicated he would do whatever it takes to abolish the carbon tax – including calling a double dissolution election – but on Tuesday at a press conference at Canberra's Parliament House he retreated from this scenario. “We are confident that the public pressure on the Labor Party will be such that they will not defy the mandate of the Australian people,” Mr Abbott said. Mr Shorten, he suggested, would support the legislation because he was “nothing if not a political pragmatist … nothing if not a political survivor.” Mr Abbott said that he would like the Senate to vote on his carbon tax repeal bill before Christmas, but noted that he did not control the business of the upper house. "I'm only the Prime Minister," he said.

Mr Abbott would not be drawn on questions about what would happen to the tax if the Coalition was forced to wait until the new Senate, which does not come into force until July 2014. The Prime Minister would not speculate on the "distant future", despite suggestions that it may be easier for the Coalition to secure support for the carbon tax repeal when the Greens lose the balance of power in the Senate. The repeal bills will remove the carbon tax, end the carbon tax on fuels used in shipping, rail and air transport and on synthetic greenhouse gases, said the Environment Minister Greg Hunt. Carbon tax industry assistance, including the Jobs and Competitiveness Program, will continue until June 30 next year, to help affected businesses, Mr Abbott said in a statement. The carbon tax repeal legislation will give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission further powers to punish businesses that engage in price exploitation following the repeal of the carbon tax.

The Coalition has promised that households will be about $550 better off in 2014-15 after its legislation is passed to remove the carbon tax. Mr Shorten said on Monday he did not have to support Mr Abbott's campaign to dump the carbon tax. "He has a mandate to form a government of Australia, but there is nothing in Australian democracy that says that Labor has to be a rubber stamp for every Coalition proposition," he told Fairfax Radio. When discussing the potential return of the new Parliament, Mr Abbott said he was waiting on the Australian Electoral Commission's recount in Queensland. "My strong expectation is that the Electoral Commission will get that job done [to return the writs] as quickly as it can, that it will get the job done in time for parliament to come back on November 11," Mr Abbott said.

The Prime Minister added that parliament would sit "sufficient to make a good start on the government's legislative agenda". He also said he expected there would be some "additional budget estimates" in the parliamentary sittings before Christmas.