Given the hot air that tends to hover over any discussion about a carbon price it might be best for the Greens’ Senator Milne not to throw around casual statements about petrol prices until the issue has actually been addressed by the multiparty climate change committee.

Either that, or she’ll have to continue to devote slices of her day to hosing down the hyperbole.

Tony “we will fight this tax every second of every minute of every day of every week of every month” Abbott spent Sunday helping out at the petrol pump.

But no one sucks on petrol fumes to fuel their prose better than former opposition leader Brendan Nelson. If Milne continues to gift scare tactics to the Coalition, may we suggest Abbott lifts this straight from the Book of Brendan:

“For those of us who live in the real world, tonight, Tuesday night, in every part of the country except Western Australia there will be queues of motorists up to half a kilometre long outside petrol stations … they will be there in their 20-year-old Mitsubishis, they will be there in their 10-year-old Commodores with three kids in the back seat and they will be there in their Taragos with a wheelchair in the back … these are the men and women who are making decisions about whether they are going to buy processed sausages or chops…

Beat that, Tony.

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Quick, dust off your tux and join Cinetology’s Luke Buckmaster, The Enthusiast editor Mel Campbell and the rest of the Crikey team in the Crikey Oscars Liveblog right now. It kicked off at midday, meaning you’re just in time to pass away the afternoon discussing the shock wins, awkward acceptance speeches and god-awful gowns.