25 August 2005

Brash incompetence turns $40 into $900

Don Brash's claim that the carbon tax will cost the average household $900 a year is arithmetically and factually wrong says Convenor of the Ministerial Group on Climate Change Pete Hodgson.

"Brash has made three mistakes. Firstly, he's looked at the wrong PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis, one on emissions rather than the carbon tax. Secondly he's interpreted the report as covering a single year when it covers five; and thirdly, he's assumed that the price of carbon on the international market is nearly four times higher than Treasury says it now is.

"If Brash were to have looked at Treasury's published reports he would have been able to work out that it you were divide the annual cost of New Zealand's excess emissions across the nation's households, it would equal $40.

"This is less to do with emissions and more to do with Dr Brash's ability to count. This is the man who wants to run the New Zealand economy but as this latest bungle shows, when it comes to adding up, Brash is so confused by the pressures of dealing with women he's managed to turn $40 into $900."

ENDS

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