Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All week we've listened to the shadow climate minister use a report by Frontier Economics to claim there is a $500 billion discrepancy in the government's costing of climate action. When I heard that, my ears pricked up because I love a good economic report—I do; I love a good economic report. So I read this one, Deputy Speaker, and you're going to be surprised by what I found. This report does not show a $500 billion gap; in fact, the whole report is at pains to show alignment between it and the government's numbers. I'll read you what it says on page 6 of this report: 'In summary, the report modelling matched the government's modelling well and the numbers are 97 per cent the same.'

So how on earth do you get from that to a $500 billion discrepancy? Well, 90 per cent of this $500 billion gap is a cheap accounting trick. All he has done is to convert the government's cost of climate action from net present value terms into total dollar terms. It's exactly the same number; it just sounds bigger. It's a cheap trick and he knows it. It is misleading and he knows it. I encourage all of his colleagues who want to retain a shred of credibility to read the report for themselves and dump this $500 billion sham.