Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, upon notice, on 7 September 2012:

With reference to the Australian Government flyer titled Where every $100 on your electricity bill goes, distributed to households in September 2012:

(1) Of the $100 total represented by the bar graph, what height in millimetres represents $1 across each of the four columns.

(2) Is the column that represents $51 proportionally greater on a per unit basis than the column representing the Carbon Tax.

(3) Who is responsible for these calculations.

(4) Who prepared the: (a) statistical representation; and (b) artwork.

(5) Why is this chart not consistent with the figure published at the advertised website address, http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/your-electricity-bill.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

The artwork was prepared by the graphic design team of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency's Communications and Public Affairs Branch. It is not a statistical graph, rather it is a graphic representation of numeric information, which is based on Treasury figures and clearly displayed on each bar.

The website uses the same graphic, but the artwork was scaled down vertically to fit within the confines of the webpage. The website graph does feature a different heading to the hardcopy graph, but the numeric information presented is exactly the same.

It is worth noting that in developing a graphic such as this, the design needs to be able to be applied to a range of different formats. These different formats allow for necessary adjustments to the size and length of the graphic so that it maximises the space available, whether that is an elongated DL flyer or a square-shaped webpage. It is for this reason the focus of the graphic has always been on clearly presenting the numeric information.