Abbott's Absurdities Exposed

Index of Bulletins 

These Bulletins, from Labor hero and former Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, chronicle and expose some of Tony Abbott's astonishing campaign of recklessly false claims about carbon pricing and its impacts.

• Bulletin no. 52: 28 May 2013 
  Climate denial statements from Tony Abbott; fact sheet on how the carbon price is actually working
• Bulletin no. 51: 17 May 2013 
  Tony Abbott admits he can't guarantee electricity prices will go down as he claimed
• Bulletin no. 50: 11 April 2013
  Tony Abbott's false claims demolished on impact of carbon price on car manufacturing
• Bulletin no. 49: 11 March 2013 
  Greg Hunt retracts Tony Abbott's promise to abolish "draconian new police force chasing an invisible, odourless, weightless, tasteless substance" Clean Energy Regulator
• Bulletin no. 48:  26 February 2013 (Chris Evans)
  Details Coalition backflips on whether and how "Direct Action" would include penalities
• Bulletin no. 47:  26 February 2013 (Chris Evans)
  Greg Hunt and Joe Hockey contradict each other on whether "Direct Action" will compensate businesses who have made clean energy investments; Tony Abbott hasn't read his own policy
• Bulletin no. 46: 14 February 2013 (Chris Evans)
  Exposes Tony Abbott verballing the President of the United States. Tony Abbott untruthfully claims President Obama ruled out an emissions trading scheme when, in fact, the US President did exactly the opposite
• Bulletin no. 45: 27 November 2012 
  Corrects false and misleading claims in Tony Abbott's "A Strong Australia"
• Bulletin no. 44: 26 November 2012 
  Responds to the false claims and aggressive negativity of Tony Abbott's scare campaign
• Bulletin no. 43: 5 November 2012 
  Barnaby Joyce's "half million dollar cow" claim, and the facts
• Bulletin no. 42: 15  November 2012 
  Californian ETS kicks off; Australia not "acting alone" as Tony Abbott claims
• Bulletin no. 41: 5 November 2012  
  September 2012 Producer Price Index shows Tony Abbott claim misleading that carbon price would increase cost of key manufactured inputs and materials used throughout industry. Prices of goods mentioned by Tony Abbott either only increased moderately or actually fell.
• Bulletin no. 40: 17 October 2012 
  CPI figures show scare campaign wrong on carbon price impact on cost of living
• Bulletin no. 39: 13 October 2012 
  Exposes misleading claims by coalition MPs on legislation linking Australia's carbon price to international markets
• Bulletin no. 38: 9 October 2012 
  Exposes deceptive claims in Parliament by Tony Abbott about an electricity bill 
• Bulletin no. 37: 27 September 2012 
  Exposes another dishonest attack about the impact of carbon pricing on electricity bills; and Tony Abbott adding "an octopus" to his carbon price menagerie 
• Bulletin no. 36: 26 September 2012 
  Tony Abbott dives in the shallow end - fails to mention that compensation offsets swimming pool costs, or the uncompensated increases in power network costs from State governments
• Bulletin no. 35: 21 September 2012 
  Tony Abbott tries to mislead people in Western Sydney on carbon pricing and power bills and then has his office airbrush the transcript
• Bulletin no. 34: 20 September 2012 
  Tony Abbott tries to mislead people in Western Sydney on carbon pricing and power bills 
• Bulletin no. 33: 5 September 2012 
  Tony Abbott pretends Coalition never had policy of paying old and inefficient power stations to close
• Bulletin no.32: 28 August 2012
  Tony Abbott falsely states "“There are no developing carbon markets in the Asia-Pacific”. Bulletin notes markets in place or developing in Korea, China, California, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam.
• Bulletin no.31: 25 August 2012 
  Tony Abbott admits to Tasmanian Liberal Party meeting "the initial impact of the carbon price may not be absolutely catastrophic" - depite his claims for previous 18 months
• Bulletin no.30: 22 August 2012 
  Liberal member Sharman Stone joins in, exaggerates carbon price impacts on dairy industry
• Bulletin no. 29: 22 August 2012
  Exposes coalition technniques for exaggeration of small business impacts of carbon pricing: (1) refer to dollar figures not percentage of turnover (generally 0.2%); (2) blame all electricity cost increases on carbon price; (3) selectively quote only one component of an electricity bill;  (4) falsely claim small business gets no assistance; (5) ignore household assistance package for customers.
• Bulletin no.28: 1 August 2012  
  Exposes Tony Abbott's deceptive claims on Tasmanian radio
• Bulletin no.27: 31 July 2012  
  Tony Abbott makes false claims about impact of carbon pricing on refrigerant gases
• Bulletin no.26: 13 July 2012 
  While Tony Abbott visits the US and China he should learn that he is wrong that Australia is "acting alone" with a carbon price
• Bulletin no.25: 12 July 2012 
  Tony Abbott misleads the public, again, on refrigerants and the carbon price. Also fails to mention the Clean Technology Food and Foundries program (once in government they abolish this, but they also claim credit for its results e.g. Bob Baldwin MP re solar at Drayton's Wineries Feb 2014)
• Bulletin no.24: 11 July 2012
  Tony Abbott misleads about the price of fish, and lies about fuel for trawlers
• Bulletin no.23: 10 July 2012
  Tony Abbott makes false claims about impact of carbon pricing on grocery prices
• Bulletin no.22: 8 July 2012
  Tony Abbott falsely claims (1) that the world is moving away from emissions trading schemes; (2) that Australia will have the world's biggest carbon tax; (3) that Australia is exposing itself to economic danage without doing any environmental good. Greg Combet shows these claims to be falsehoods. 
• Bulletin no.21: 6 July 2012
  Tony Abbott says Whyalla will be damaged by carbon price before it's damaged by rising sea levels. Greg Combet points out attempted retreat from " Whyalla wiped out" comment.
• Bulletin no.20: 4 July 2012
  Tony Abbott falsely claims (1) that other countries are running away from emissions trading; (2) that Australia's ETS won't reduce emissions; (3) carbon price will be "an economic disaster". Combet shows claims to be false.
• Bulletin no.19: 3 July 2012 
  Exposes Tony Abbott's scare campaign on the carbon price and fishing
• Bulletin no. 18: 2 July 2012
  Tony Abbott falsely claims that other countries are walking away from an ETS
• Bulletin no. 17: 30 June 2012
  Greg Hunt exposed for ridiculous scare campaign full of lies about carbon price on toast and vegemite
• Bulletin no.16: 29 June 2012  
  Tony Abbott spreads negative myths about Australian economy in effort to talk down carbon pricing
• Bulletin no. 15: 14 June 2012 
  False claims by Tony Abbott and his team exposed: (1) Claim that aluminium smelters face $23/tonne price false - for them it's under $1.30/tonne; (2) ETS an economic disaster: ETS overwhelming advice of economists and backed by the IMF; (3) Claim that LaTrobe power stations in trouble: Aust Energy Market Operator says no carbon price transition energy security problems; (4) Claim that Household Assistance Package doesn't factor in council rates and waste disposal: false - it does. 
• Bulletin no. 14: 26 June 2012 
  Tony Abbott's claim that charities not assisted with impact of carbon price - false.
• Bulletin no. 13: 21 June 2012  
  Tony Abbott pushed to (sort of) admit that State Liberal Governments have been major players in increasing electricity prices.
• Bulletin no. 12: 19 June 2012 
  ACCC confirms that claims by Tony Abbott on impact of carbon price on house prices are false.
• Bulletin no. 11: 13 June 2012  
  Claim by Tony Abbott that Household Assistance Package offsets won't increase but carbon price impacts will: exposed as false.
• Bulletin no. 10: 12 June 2012 
  Tony Abbott shifts from alleged cobra strikes to alleged python squeezes. Still false.
• Bulletin no. 9: 4 June 2012 
  The only python in the carbon price debate is Tony Abbott's python called Monty.
• Bulletin no. 8: 30 May 2012 
  Tony Abbott falsely claims that carbon price will make it more expensive to run council trucks
• Bulletin no. 7: 14 May 2012
  Tony Abbott's claim that closure of Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter due to carbon price comprehensively disowned by company: "We have been quite specific saying that the carbon tax is not the reason".
• Bulletin no. 6: 24 May 2012 
  Tony Abbott and Warren Truss tell spectacular untruths about impacts of carbon pricing on refrigerant gases despite these gases having 1000 times the greenhouse impact of CO2 and already being subjected to Howard era restrictions
• Bulletin no. 5: 12 May 2012 
  Tony Abbott exposed for exaggerating impact of carbon price on electricity prices
• Bulletin no. 4: 22 May 2012 
  Tony Abbott's blamed carbon price for Tasmanian manganese smelter suspending - even though BHP blamed high dollar, input costs and world manganese prices. BHP restarts operations after working with employees on efficiencies. 
• Bulletin no. 3: 18 May 2012 
  Western Australian Budget confirms Treasury figures on small carbon price impact on cost of living, contradicts Tony Abbott scare campaign
• Bulletin no. 2: 16 May 2012
  Tony Abbott misrepresents the Household Assistance Package, again 
• Bulletin no. 1: 15 May 2012
  Tony Abbott misrepresents the Household Assistance Package