Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says "millions of Australians will be worse off" under the Government's carbon price scheme.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has unveiled the details of the scheme she says will chart Australia's course to a "clean energy future", saying the price on carbon pollution will start at $23 per tonne from next year and then increase by 2.5 per cent above inflation until a market-based trading scheme takes over in 2015.

More than $15 billion is being set aside to compensate households via tax reform and direct payments, and the Government says the average household will be 20 cents a week better off.

Reacting to the announcement of the scheme, Mr Abbott dismissed the Government's "pollie speak" and said the plan would cost jobs, drive up prices and do nothing for the environment.

Mr Abbott said that when the Government said 90 per cent of households would get compensation and 40 per cent would be overcompensated, it really meant that 10 per cent of households would get "absolutely nothing" and 60 per cent would be either worse off or "line ball".

He said there are many "cameos" of households and family types that will be worse off.

"The one that particularly struck me is a single-income family on $65,000 a year, below average weekly earnings, with one child under five is worse off," Mr Abbott told a press conference.

"I think the Government is going to find, having published all this, is that it suffers the death of a thousand cameos as so many people look at these figures and decide that they are not going to be better off at all."

And he seized on the built-in carbon price rise of 2.5 per cent above inflation for the first three years, saying it will just go "up and up and up".

He said that even on the Government's own figures emissions will still increase and could only be offset by buying permits from abroad.

"This is an extraordinary business. Under the Government's own proposals Australian businesses are going to spend more than $3 billion a year purchasing abatements from abroad.

"We all know the potential for fraud, the potential for scamming. Even the European emissions trading scheme has been riddled with scamming and that's in a culture where administrative probity is held in high respect."

Mr Abbott also suggested the carbon price would not generate "anything like" the revenue the Government was expecting, so the household compensation would have to come out of the budget.

"There is a real fiscal hole beyond the [four-year] forward estimates period."

He described the scheme as "socialism masquerading as environmentalism".

"What's the point of all of this? This is a redistribution pretending to be compensation, it's a tax increase pretending to be an environmental policy."

Demanding that an election be held soon on the carbon price, Mr Abbott said the next election would be a referendum on the issue.

"If this is such a good package, why won't the Prime Minister fight an election on it?" he asked.

"Why won't she fight an election on it soon? Certainly there should be no carbon tax without the people of Australia having their chance to have their say on it."

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey described the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation - which will provide loans to innovative clean energy projects - as the "Gillard Bank".

"Financing speculative investments is putting taxpayers' money at risk. The funds themselves will effectively make every business a welfare recipient," he said.