NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell needs to beware of clambering aboard Tony Abbott’s unprincipled scare campaign over a carbon price if he wants to retain any credibility.

Mr O’Farrell has made a series of misleading claims about impact of the Gillard Government’s plan for a clean energy future on the people of NSW.

These claims are a hodge-podge of cobbled-together numbers from different consultants which have been compiled to scare the people of NSW and cover up the O’Farrell Government’s agenda of hiking State Government charges.

A few weeks ago the NSW Government claimed electricity prices would rise by 20 per cent due to a carbon price. Now they reckon it will be 15 per cent.

But the trouble is Mr O’Farrell’s latest electricity price predictions make no logical sense.

Let’s get some facts into the debate.

Electricity used in NSW releases 0.89 tonnes of carbon pollution for every megawatt hour (MWh) on average. Mr O’Farrell claims that a household using 5.6 MWh a year would have increased costs of $300. That is around $60 for every tonne of carbon pollution.

So Mr O’Farrell wants us to believe that the Gillard Government’s carbon price of $23 dollars a tonne will increase household electricity prices by more than double the carbon cost impact on NSW coal-fired generators.

The dodgy logic gets worse.

Mr O’Farrell then goes on to say that these coal-fired generators would give less money back to the NSW Government in dividends – even though he has predicted they will hike prices by more than double the impact of a carbon price.

Yet his analysis also warns that some generators estimate they will only be able to pass through 40 per cent of the carbon costs to their customers.

None of this adds up – unless it is an O’Farrell Government plan to use the carbon price as an excuse to price-gouge the NSW public.

The Gillard Government stands by the Federal Treasury’s detailed and rigorous modelling which shows household electricity prices will rise by 10 per cent due to the carbon price – or $3.30 a week on average.

We will provide assistance to households worth $10.10 a week, on average, in the form of tax cuts, increases in family payments and higher pensions and benefits.

If Mr O’Farrell had done the hard work of rigorous analysis he would also have concluded, like the Federal Treasury modelling does, that employment will continue to grow under a carbon price.

Federal Treasury modelling shows employment will grow, with an extra 1.6 million jobs being created nationwide by 2020.

The Federal Treasury modelling shows industries like coal mining and steel manufacturing – which are important to the NSW economy and to regions like the Hunter Valley and the Illawarra – will continue to grow under a carbon price.

Mr O’Farrell’s false claims are not restricted to baseless predictions of doom and gloom for the NSW economy. He also incorrectly says the Federal Treasury did not model the impacts of a carbon price on the States and Territories.

If he had read the Federal Treasury modelling, he would know that mining in NSW is projected to grow by 118 per cent to 2050, services by 228 per cent and construction by 158 per cent, all under a carbon price.

He would also be aware that it projects the economy of NSW will grow strongly under a carbon price, growing by 27 per cent to 2020 and by 164 per cent by 2050.

The NSW Premier would be best advised to get on with the job of serving his State and stop devoting his time to supporting Mr Abbott’s discredited fear campaign on the carbon price.