He has asked for answers by Australia Day to give people information ''before you introduce legislation with significant grocery, electricity and other costs of living impacts for all Australians''.

The revamped legislation will come in when Parliament resumes early next month.

In a letter to Senator Wong, Mr Hunt asks that the price increases on a litre of milk, loaf of bread, a basket of groceries, and heating for the home of a pensioner who lives in a cold place.

He also asks:

• How much will the cost of running a drycleaning business, a lighting store and a pie shop increase?
• Will almost none of the money raised by the scheme go to reducing emissions or any form of real climate change action?
• Will she confirm that the scheme would raise $120 billion from ''mums and dads, pensioners, teachers, police and emergency service workers'' and then give big business $40 billion of that?
• ''Are you aware that the French constitutional court has just knocked out that country's carbon tax, that Tony Blair has just called for direct action, that even Sting has highlighted the potential of the world's forests to clean up our air and that the European model - which you trumpet - does not tax electricity and even then has been a dismal failure?''
• Will, on the modelling, 5.7 million Australian families be worse off?
• Will non-emissions trading measures have reduced Australian emissions by 150 million tonnes a year by 2020, more than even the best case under the trading scheme?
• Will the Government restore support for solar energy?
• Will Senator Wong guarantee no individual pensioner will be worse off under the scheme?

Mr Hunt has also taken up the challenge of NSW Australian of the Year, environmental activist John Dee, for federal politicians to cut their own emissions by 10 per cent.

He said his family would look at measures such as turning off standby power at night.