"NO, no, no, no, no."

Barnaby Joyce's position on supporting the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme as it stands couldn't have been made much clearer when asked "would The Nationals vote for it" at the National Press Club in Canberra this week.

The Government has flagged its intention to introduce its carbon pollution reduction scheme legislation to the Parliament this week, despite last week declaring the scheme would be delayed for 12 months primarily because of recession gripping Australia and most other developed nations' economies.

The leader of The Nationals in the Senate used his first address to the National Press Club to reiterate why his party is so against the scheme in its current form and wouldn't rule out a Coalition split when it came time to vote.

He said the only benefactors of the scheme were the brokers of permits and carbon credits, while exporters would be severely punished.

"The National Party stated its position. If you go forward with the emission trading scheme that they've just put forward?

"The answer's no.

"There you go - no, no, no, no, no, okay?

"I'll tell you who the benefactors of the scheme are - the wonderful people at some serious stock broking houses who are going to punt in the first year $11 billion worth of paper around the market place.

"So that's one half per cent commission… $165 million. They do it on a churn rate of three. You're getting up close to half a billion dollars in commission.

"…we've got them making money and the people that actually produce things, such as miners, aluminium industry, ultimately the farming industry - they're all going out of business.

"This is just perverse.

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

Senator Joyce said if people want to find another policy of reducing carbon emissions "there's so many simple ways you could do it".

"You could just say we're going to have an upfront tax deduction of some sort for the implementation of capital that is carbon effective. No brainer."

Crunching the numbers

• Cattle produce about 70 kilograms of methane a year
• Sheep produce about 10kgs
• Multiply the methane emitted by 21 to get the carbon equivalent
• Government will fix the price for carbon at $10 a tonne for one year
• Market estimates predict that could hit $40 thereafter
• In the case of cattle 70 x 21 = 1470kg
• 1470kg x $10 = $14.70/tonne x 1000 head of cattle = $14,700 in first year of scheme