They also believe Australia should not wait for the world before starting its scheme, according to a poll of 4000 across 10 electorates.

In Malcolm Turnbull's Wentworth seat, 73 per cent of Liberals thought their member should vote for the Rudd scheme or an amended one.

The poll, done for the carbon alliance, a group of companies specialising in carbon sinks, has been circulated to Liberal MPs, who will vote on the scheme in August after a delay was agreed to last week.

The Opposition still expects the scheme will be defeated in the Senate in August, although Mr Turnbull is interested in trying to get a deal at some stage.

The Liberal electorates polled in late May and early June are McEwen, Bowman, Swan, Dickson, Herbert, La Trobe, Stirling, Cowan, Wentworth and Goldstein (which is on a 6.1 per cent margin and held by emissions trading spokesman Andrew Robb).

The report was done by Patterson Market Research.

People in the marginals overwhelmingly (70 per cent) support the ETS.

Support is much stronger in Wentworth and Goldstein than in the Queensland seats of Bowman, Herbert, and Dickson, and McEwen in rural Victoria.

Nearly three-quarters said Australia should introduce its scheme now rather than wait for the US and others to act.

Mr Robb dismissed the results, saying the questions were leading.

"All you could get out of it is something beyond dispute - that a majority of the community want something done," he said.

Meanwhile, the Australia Institute says the states are being taken for a ride by the Federal Government.

It would burden them with a cost of $2 billion annually under the proposed scheme without compensation.