The 20-page colour booklet What a Carbon Price Means for You mailed out to 10 million households in August may become something of a collector’s item.
The Audit Office has found the Climate Change Department used it to make 99 claims about the carbon tax, 32 of which it was unable to fully back up in the accompanying documentation.
Typical was the claim that ”nine in 10 households will receive some combination of tax cuts and increased payments to help them with the cost of living impact of the carbon price”.
The Audit Office found the department relied on a document that stated less emphatically that ”about” nine in 10 households would get the help.
The booklet said more than 4 million households would get assistance ”at least” 20 per cent more than the average price impact of the carbon tax, whereas the source document said the assistance would be ”around” 20 per cent more than the price impact.
The department set up a fact-checking matrix enabling it to back up each of the 142 claims made in radio, TV, print and mailout advertisements, but when actually checked by the Audit Office, 52 of the claims were found not to be backed up in the way the matrix said.
The booklet said by the end of the decade the carbon pricing package would cut emissions by the equivalent of taking 45 million cars off the road, but the matrix said nothing about an equivalent number of cars.
The radio and TV advertisements spoke of the carbon tax as if it had been decided, whereas the legislation had not yet been passed.
In its response to the audit the Department of Climate Change late yesterday pleaded ”difficult circumstances” and a ”complex policy package”. It said each of the claims could be supported by evidence. But the Audit Office found much of that evidence had to be assembled later after its inquiries and did not form part of the matrix meant to back up the campaign.
The $1.7 million mailout distribution contract was approved verbally by one departmental officer but recorded later as having been approved by another.
