PM urges Senate repeal vote before Xmas Prime Minister Tony Abbott is demanding the Senate votes on his carbon tax repeal before Christmas. PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is demanding the Senate votes on his carbon tax repeal bills before Christmas. The move will hand him his first double dissolution election trigger. The repeal package cleared its first hurdle the lower house last week but the real battle to axe the tax begins in the Senate in early December. Labor and the Australian Greens have vowed to block the laws in the Senate, and they collectively hold the balance of power until the upper house changeover in July. Mr Abbott released a video clip on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter on Sunday evening challenging the Senate to pass the repeal package. "The House of Representatives has voted to scrap the carbon tax, now it's up to the Senate to do the same and I want this done by Christmas," he said. He repeated the government claim that removing the carbon tax will save households $550 a year. But the federal government has threatened a double dissolution election if Labor and the Greens stand in the way. A second rejection of the bills before June 30 will give the government its full double-dissolution election trigger, to be used at its discretion. Labor wants to terminate the $24.15 per tonne fixed carbon price but bring forward its conversion to an internationally-linked emissions trading scheme which could result in a price fall to $6.