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 281 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.
"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."
Mr Dominello said while politicians were not expected to be perfect, they were expected to be honest. "It was an honest mistake," he said.
A Manildra spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham had placed a question on notice for Mr Dominello seeking the jobs figures.
"Many MPs cited jobs involved to justify support for legislation they knew was deeply flawed," he said.
"It's deeply disturbing that the minister in charge of fair trading would mislead the parliament with false figures spoon[fed] to him by a major political donor who stands to benefit by hundreds of millions of dollars."
The embarrassing admission follows the passage of controversial legislation forcing smaller retailers to sell an ethanol blend, E10, for the first time in a bid to ensure ethanol accounts for 6 per cent of all petrol sold.
But the Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association has warned small retailers will be forced to increase the price over three years to recoup the cost of equipment upgrades.
