Australia's conservative leader Tony Abbott walks onto the stage to claim victory at an election night function in Sydney on Sept. 7, 2013. Rob Griffith/Pool/Reuters

Immediately after being sworn in as Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott ordered the scrapping of Australia's carbon tax and the turning back of boats carrying asylum-seekers.

The 55-year-old conservative pledged to get straight to work after a ceremony Wednesday at Government House in Canberra, where his Liberal-National Coalition government officially brought six years of Labor rule to a close.

"As soon as I return to Parliament House from the swearing-in ceremony, I will instruct the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to prepare the carbon tax repeal legislation," said Abbott, who once famously said that evidence blaming people for climate change was "absolute crap."

His new government instead favors a "direct action" plan, which includes an emissions reduction fund that would pay companies to increase their energy efficiency, as well as money for programs to replenish soil carbon and plant 20 million trees.

Abbott was elected on Sept. 7 on a pledge to build new roads across the vast nation, end taxes on corporate pollution and mining profits imposed under the Labor administration, and scrap a costly paid parental leave program.

Another central plank of Abbott's election campaign was stopping asylum-seeker boats. His policy of using the navy to tow them back to nearby Indonesia, their typical point of transit, was set to come into effect on Wednesday.

Every year thousands of would-be refugees from countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka attempt the dangerous journey, often in rickety boats run by people-smuggling syndicates.