'Carbon Tax' plebiscite? Jeez Louise, whose dumb idea was that?

In Australia there is the ability to hold Advisory Referendums (also called Plebiscites) which in the present era are conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission on a fee for service basis.
These plebiscites involve voluntary voting on an issue and these votes has no legal force whatsoever.
Like national referendums, national plebiscites don’t have a history of giving the question framers the answer they want.
So who doesn’t have a right to insist that the Gillard Government contract the Australian Electoral Commission to run a “carbon tax” plebiscite costing somewhere between $69 million and hundreds of millions? Who also says he won’t be bound by the results if it’s a big “Yes” to a carbon tax, but who supposedly wants 14 million+ voters to turn out on a probably wintry Saturday to cast their votes anyway?
Who won’t be paying anything out of his own pocket, but expects the Government to cut back on what it delivers in the current Budget by dipping into funds supplied by the hard work of taxpayers?
Or if the Government understandably won't oblige, may even expect people like mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Twiggy Forrest to dig into their own deep pockets to force the issue for him?
You guessed it in one – Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, aided and abetted by his Coalition cronies.
Maud Up The Street tells me she phoned Tony Abbott's parliamentary office this morning and was told that Abbott doesn't intend to put any bill before the Senate or the House just yet - instead he intends to put a notice of motion on the House of Reps schedule foreshadowing a private member's bill on a plebiscite. Maud says that means it won't come before Parliament for a week or two at the very least and during that time the composition of the Senate will change. Something she says Abbott is careful not to mention if he can help it.