Is it just me?

Yesterday Hubby emailed home a media release from the Hon. Mr Robertson who is Queensland's minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy. My understanding of the statemtent was that it was put out to justify the electricity prices in Queensland.

The question I'm asking is that is it just me who finds these sorts of figures misleading and incredibly frustrating? Here is part of the media release:

"Mr Robertson said household electricity prices as set by the independent Queensland Competition Authority are less than charges in NSW, South Australia and Tasmania.

The increase in prices as determined by the QCA this year were similar to increases in Victoria and NSW and five percent cheaper than the increase in Western Australia.

The average household bill in Queensland ($1781) is cheaper than the average bills in South Australia ($1989), NSW ($1954) , Tasmania ($1910) and Victoria ($1782). Mr Robertson said."

Perhaps it's just my scientific nature but there's two relevant points here:

(1) Considering that Queensland has a mostly sub-tropical to tropical climate and states closer to the Antarctic would have homes that would need heating for a longer part of the year then umm..wouldn't the other states be using more electricity in the first place?

(2) Considering (1) wouldn't it be more appropriate to quote the charges per kilowatt-hour than the average bill?

I remember when a survey was done about grocery prices when the Howard (conservative) government was in power. The comparison was made between the cost of various items from one year to the next to point out the supposed incredible inflation in prices. Problem was that they chose to put bananas in their comparison. Considering that a cyclone had just completely devastated the north Queensland town that produced bananas (putting them into an exorbitant price range) I hardly think it was a reasonable reflection on inflation.

Who teaches these people science in schools!!!