Coalition on attack over carbon tax modelling

THE Coalition is questioning the integrity of global carbon markets, the credibility of Treasury modelling and the introduction of a new tax in times of global economic uncertainty as the anti-carbon tax campaign ramps up ahead of the parliamentary debate in September.
As Labor, the Greens and the cross-bench independents prepare to pass the unpopular tax, the Coalition and business groups are intensifying a campaign to discredit modelling that estimates its impact on household prices to be modest and the international carbon markets with which the Australian scheme would link.
The Liberal Senator Mathias Cormann used the inquiry to accuse the Treasury of ''cherry-picking'' evidence from a critical World Bank report in order to turn a ''bleak'' picture of ''collapsing'' global carbon markets into a rosy one.

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A Treasury official, Meghan Quinn, defended the use of the World Bank report in the modelling document, saying there had been ''no cherry picking or lack of acknowledgement of the difficulties around the international regime'' and that an increase of $11 billion between 2005 and 2009, to $144 billion, followed by a reduction to $142 billion in 2010 ''cannot be characterised as total collapse''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/coalition-on-attack-over-carbon-tax-modelling-20110810-1imwq.html#ixzz1UzqDbrDv