Climate Change Minister Greg Combet vows Labor will remain committed to its carbon pricing regime beyond the next federal election, despite any political damage.
Almost a year since its introduction, Mr Combet says the $23-a-tonne carbon price on the emissions of big polluters was a great Labor reform and he won't give it up without a fight.
The coalition has made abolishing the carbon tax its first priority if it wins government in September and has challenged Mr Combet to say whether he'd stand in the way.
Mr Combet says the carbon package is working.
Since it came into effect in July 2012, carbon emissions had dropped 7.4 per cent, renewable energy generation had surged 30 per cent and more than 150,000 jobs had been created, he said.
The minister questioned Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's resolve to abolish the scheme.
"My contention is that he cannot and will not repeal the carbon price," Mr Combet told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
"Labor will remain committed to it."
With similar schemes under way or about to begin in Europe, China, South Korea and Quebec, Mr Combet said carbon pricing was here to stay.
But he conceded the political argy-bargy around the carbon price, dubbed a Labor broken election promise by the opposition, had taken a toll.
"We've worked tremendously hard to make these reforms, and they've been at some political cost," he said.
"If the debate is difficult, so be it."
Mr Combet noted there had been a turnaround in support for the carbon price, with an Essential poll showing those for and against the scheme were now deadlocked at 43 per cent.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said Labor had suffered for undertaking major reforms like carbon pricing.
"The government has taken on some very big, tough reforms and in so doing we've had some paint ripped off us - no doubt about that," Mr Swan told reporters in Canberra.
Labor's carbon price is fixed until 2015, when it will link with Europe's emissions trading scheme and adopt a floating price set by the market.
Carbon prices in Europe plunged to below $4 per tonne after efforts to reform its carbon market failed in the European parliament.
