The federal government is confident its carbon tax will survive a High Court challenge from mining magnate Clive Palmer.
Mr Palmer first threatened the move last year and says he now has legal advice the carbon tax laws passed in November are unconstitutional.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, who guided Labor's Clean Energy package through parliament, believes the government is on strong legal ground because the legislation relies on a number of powers under the constitution.
"I think this is another foray by Mr Palmer who's got more money than sense really," he told Sky News on Thursday, adding the mining magnate had listed litigation as one of his hobbies.
"He seems to be exercising all of the wealth that he's acquired out of the resources boom and elsewhere just to pay lawyers."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says there are some constitutional issues surrounding the tax.
"Normally the Commonwealth can't tax the states, for instance and this is going to be a tax that's paid by state governments."
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown is unconcerned by Mr Palmer's legal challenge.
"If he's digging a big hole in the Galilee Basin to export millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the global atmosphere I can't see why he can't dig a big hole at the High Court," he told reporters in Canberra.
Senator Brown does not believe the carbon tax is unconstitutional.
"I've got no doubt that the High Court recognises the power of this parliament over the plutolatry of Mr Palmer," he said.
The possibility of a legal challenge comes as climate scientists say Australians should not be fooled into thinking the world is not warming just because much of the country has experienced a relatively wet and cool summer.
The years 2010 and 2011 set a record of 1409mm of rain averaged over Australia. That tops the previous two-year high set in 1973 and 1974.
The global average temperature for 2011 was also lower than all but two of the years between 2000 and 2010.
But a new report from the government's climate commission warns that it's wrong to be blinded to the long-term trend of global warming by year-to-year variability.
What's more, the recent heavy rainfall and flooding could actually have been caused by climate change.
"Climate change cannot be ruled out as a factor in recent heavy rainfall events," the commission's report, released on Thursday, states.
The commission, established by Labor to spruik the case for tackling dangerous climate change, said there was a need for Australia to do its part to drive rapid and deep reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases.
