ETS an 'electricity tax scam': Abbott

As both sides of politics argue whether or not an emissions trading scheme is a tax, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has labelled it something else - "an electricity tax scam".

Commenting after this weekend's ALP national conference endorsed pursuing an ETS and a 50 per cent renewable energy target in government, Mr Abbott said Labor's electricity tax scam would hit consumers for decades.

"Then you've got this massive and unnecessary commitment to renewables which will cause a massive overbuild of wind farms, all of which has to be paid for by the consumers," he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.