keep your propaganda julie

DANIEL EMERSON,
The West Australian
May 10, 2012, 2:15 pm

Premier Colin Barnett today said he would not allow the Federal Government to distribute information on carbon tax assistance to WA householders with their Synergy bills because that would amount to “distributing propaganda”.

Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet told ABC radio if householders had the information they would realise Mr Barnett and federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had been running a “massive scare campaign” against the tax.

Mr Combet said the carbon tax, which comes into effect on July 1, would add about $3 a week to the average WA power bill. But Commonwealth assistance to offset it – including tax cuts and pension increases – would be an average $10 per household per week.

“The Federal Government has been keen to put an insert into electricity bills so that households receive the facts about the carbon price and the facts about how much assistance the Federal Government’s providing,” Mr Combet said.

“But the WA Government, as we understand, is standing in the way of that.”

Mr Barnett later told the program it was not his job to “sell” the carbon tax.

“The state Government would not be distributing propaganda material about the carbon tax,” he said.

“If the Federal Government thinks this is such a good idea it’s up to them to sell it. It’s their tax – not mine.”

Mr Barnett said he would make sure that Synergy bills carried a notation outlining how much of the overall charge was comprised of the carbon tax in the same way the GST was labelled.