by Sean Nicholls (Sidney Morning Herald) Ethanol producer Manildra gave vastly inflated figures to the NSW government about the number of people employed in the industry before legislation forcing small petrol retailers to sell the biofuel.
According to better regulation minister Victor Dominello, Manildra told a staff member the industry supported 3000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs – figures quoted by Mr Dominello in his speech introducing the bill to the NSW Parliament.
But Mr Dominello has been forced to correct the record after discovering the true numbers were 218 direct jobs and 2668 indirect jobs.
Fairfax Media has previously revealed Manildra secured 20 meetings with NSW ministers and donated more than $160,000 to the Coalition in a ferocious lobbying effort before the introduction of new laws.
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“We understood the figures were sourced from a confidential Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by the Biofuels Association of Australia,” Mr Dominello said in a statement.
“Upon examination of the report, I realised the figures I quoted were incorrect and I have sought to correct the parliamentary record at the first available opportunity.” READ MORE
