The Nationals remain totally opposed to an emissions trading scheme (ETS) even though its coalition partner says it will consider supporting the federal government's plan when it comes up in the Senate.

Nationals leader in the Senate Barnaby Joyce confirmed the party's stand on the ETS in an address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday.

"The National party has stated its position. If you go forward with the emissions trading scheme that they've just put forward, the answer's no.

Senator Joyce said the Nationals would not support an ETS in any form.

"No, no, no, no, no," he said.

The only benefactors from the scheme would be the "wonderful" people in stockbroking houses, he said, while producers, including miners and farmers, would ultimately go out of business due to the plan's excessive costs.

"We're making those who don't pass any export dollars wealthy and making those who do make us export dollars broke," he said.

Senator Joyce said the Rudd government had, in the middle of a global recession, come up with a policy to make a bad situation worse.

There were other, simpler, ways to reduce carbon emissions, he said, including an up-front tax deduction for the implementation of capital considered "carbon-effective".

"No brainer! Who's got a problem with that? Go forward with it, but we've devised this cap and this scheme, that is so intricate and marvellous and wonderful and completely and utterly implausible," he said.

By introducing the ETS, the government was saying to regional communities like Mackay in north Queensland that they will have a 20 per cent reduction in their local economies, he said.

"And we're worried about a recession - one to two per cent reduction in our economy - over two quarters."

Senator Joyce said the Nationals did not always vote with their Liberal partners.

"About 99.9 per cent of the time, or more, we vote for the Liberal Party and I can't understand why people get their noses so out of joint when that's not the case," he said.

Even in a marriage, couples don't agree all the time, he said.

"I don't ... and no one says that's the end of this relationship, they just say that's the way relationships go."